I LIBRARY. OF CONGRESS. 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




r> 



HUMAN DEPRAVITY; 



OR 



Sixty-Two Years of My Life, 



SHOWING THE TRIALS AND PERSECUTIONS OF A 

ONCE HAPPY FAMILY, WITH WORDS OF 

EXHORTATION TO THE PUBLIC. 



By CHRISTIAN GIRL. 

ii 



MAY 191883^ 



DECATUR, ILLINOIS: 
1888. 



4 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by 

CHRISTIAN GIRL, 
an the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



J. W. FRANKS & SONS 

PRINTERS, BINDERS AND STEREOTYPERS 

PEORIA, ILLINOIS 



PREFACE 



I respectfully dedicate this book to my wife and 
children, hoping thereby to reconcile them unto myself, 
and to again reunite the broken family circle, and to 
vindicate myself before the public. Much has been said, 
and much has been written, relative to my case by 
the so-call " Christians " of the church and faith I 
professed. Having caught the leaders in premeditated 
sin relative to church matters, and giving them to under- 
stand I would expose them to the world if they did not 
right their wrong, they expelled me from the church. 
Not being satisfied with expelling me, they endeavored 
to prove me to be an insane man, but could not, and their 
last resort, and most devilish act, was to break up my 
family, and to bring my wife and children in open court 
against me. It is often said that "murder will out," so 
in this case the true status of affairs is pretty well 
understood by all, but there are certain mysteries con- 
nected with it that I shall bring out, and fully expose 
those implicated. It is a good motto, to weigh well your 
undertakings. This my persecutors have not done. They 
were not aware of the magnitude of their undertaking, 
and have begged me not to bring disrespect upon them 
and upon the church. "Right, not might," shall prevail ; 
let the keen sword of justice cut whom it may. 

Christian Girl. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chapter I, I 

My Boyhood Days, 5 

Bishop David Frantz, ---56 

George Cripe, - 72 

A. Bingaman, 84 

John Phillips and Brother, - 92 

Frederick Buckingham and Wife, ------ 97 

The Sisters, - - « 106 

T. Quickell, - - - 118 

Daniel Wagner, ---------- 122 

Isaac Wagner, -- 129 

Jacob Wagner, - 133 

Leonard Wagner, - - -136 

M. M. Eshelman, 138 

Jacob Deardorff, _ _ . _ - 142 

William Heil, 153 

Leonard Foutz, . - - - - 162 

Johnny Wise, 163 

Jacob Ulery, 165 

Daniel Venaman, 166 

Solomon Shively, 177 

Bishop Calvert, 183 

Elder Miller, ----------- 189 

Jacob Replogle, 195 

William Girl and Others, 198 

Simon Nickey, 201 

E.ev. G. W. Wilson, 207 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A Recommendation, - - - - 213 

A Letter, -'- 214 

Scandal Lane, - - - - 220 

Pleading to Editors, •- - - -221 

A Letter From My Daughter to Her Uncle, - 224 

Three Words of Strength, 227 

Clippings, ------ 228 

Mr. Thomas, 231 

Mr. Antrim and Wife, - - - 234 

Exhortation, ----------- 241 

Elder Stoufer, 245 

John Metzker, 257 

Expense Account, 254 

Brother Moore, 256 

Last Law Suit, 259 

Jacob Miller, ----- 271 

Eternity is Drawing Nigh, 275 

Exhortation, 276 

A Hint To All, 278 

Exhortation, - ----- 280 

Prayer, 282 



Human Depravity. 



Human Depravity; 

OR 

SIXTY-TWO YEARS OF MY LIFE. 



CHAPTER I. 

In preparing this volume I find many difficulties 
to be overcome, as I am not an historian or even a 
scholar, consequently a literary production with 
such barriers in the way will advance slowly, but 
the object of the publication is three fold :— First, I 
wish to again unite my family, and to inaugurate a 
mutual family love that should be all prevalent in 
every family. Second, To vindicate myself to the 
public, and to prove that what has been said by me 
is the truth; but being single handed in the combat, 
my evidence has been broken by false and malicious 
testimony, manufactured by the would-be leaders 
of the church. Third, To warn others, and, if pos- 
sible, to deter them from becoming victims, and 
being preyed upon by a set of so-called "Christian 
believers." 



HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



While preparing the exposure of this particular 
sect and church, I deem it prudent to preface the 
volume with a brief sketch of my life, such as boy- 
hood days, travels, and frontier experiences. 

I was born in Stark county, Ohio, in the town of 
New Berlin, on the 15th day of July, 1825. My 
grand-parents were born in Germany, and emi- 
grated to this country and settled in Pennsylvania, 
consequently I am of German descent. My mother 
was raised in the State of Maryland, and was a 
Palmer by name. I had five sisters and seven 
brothers. My parents called me Christian, nick- 
named Chris. At or about the age of four, my 
parents sent me to a summer school about one mile 
distant from home. The school house was made 
of logs, and the seats of boards, ornamented here 
and there with curious jack-knife carvings. No 
doubt the main object of my being sent so young 
was to keep me out of mischief at home. My first 
teacher was a school miss. She died long ago. 
But her memory lives, and lingers bright as ever; 
and her image comes unbidden to my mind's eye 
whenever I think of my A, B, C's. Like all other 
mischievous boys, I sometimes came to grief by 
disobeying the dictates of the teacher. Upon one 



HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



occasion I remember very well how the " school 
marm," in endeavoring to administer punishment, 
drew me upon her lap, and in my squirming to get 
away an opportunity presented itself, and I grabbed 
her little finger in my mouth. I bit and she pulled, 
the result being that she very nearly lost her little 
finger. Of course her loss would have been my 
gain, had I not chosen to spit it out. In the even- 
ing she called me to her and told me to bring her 
some salve the next day ; but I failed to do as she 
requested, and consequently got a severe flogging. 
It always pays to be obedient to our parents 
and to our teachers, to our government, and to all 
who are in authority. " Do unto others as you 
would have them do unto you." We should all 
try and live near the golden rule, and were it my 
privilege to live over the sixty-one years of my life, 
how different, and how much more could I have 
made of myself. By doing the right we influence 
some one else to do right, and this, in turn, has its 
influence on s.ome one else. Then like the pebble 
when dropped into the calm water, the circle 
widens until it reaches the farthest limits of the 
shore. Without this regard for others, and the 
centralization of all in self, civilization is impossible, 



HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



strife, contention, and discord would stalk abroad 
over our land. Church and state would dissolve, 
families be separated, and governmental powers 
made impossible. There is too much discord, back- 
biting, etc., in our churches. The outsider stands 
and looks into the many churches, but he is afraid 
to unite with any for fear of his being beaten and 
driven about by some skeptic preacher that doesn't 
practice what he preaches. He does it for various 
reasons. He is an intelligent, well-read man, but 
he preaches for fame, to be honored, not by God, 
but by men. He makes some of his hearers believe 
that he works for the mighty God, when it is for 
the mighty dollar. He is not ignorant of the plain 
truth of the word of God, " That the love of money 
is the root of all evil ! " I shall not confine myself 
to the skeptic preacher, as I want to be honest and 
fair with my fellow men. 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 



Dear readers, it will not be necessary to go into 
details of telling you that I am an illiterate or un- 
learned man. You will soon find that in reading 
a short ways in this volume ; but I want to show to 
the world how I have been persecuted, mostly by a 
number of professors of religion, and I hope you 
will bear with me while I try to unravel my life from 
the cradle to the present time, so I will proceed. 

I was born in Stark county, Ohio, one mile north 
of New Berlin, on the 15th of July, 1825. At the 
time of my birth Ohio was a new State and very 
thinly populated, and in and around the section 
where I was born was very heavy timber, but the 
soil was good and productive, and its fame was 
known all over our country, and it grew very fast 
in population, the timber was readily cleared away 
by the new comers, and good farms inclosed and 
improved ; and by the time I left my boyhood home 
it was a great farming country, and the timber be- 
came very scarce. I can look back and remember 
many happy days in my boyhood. 



HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



My father was of German descent, my grand- 
father having emigrated from Germany to the State 
of Pennsylvania, where father was born. My mother 
was a native of Maryland ; both of my parents 
being robust and hardy. As long ago as I can 
remember mother used to work in the field, reaping 
wheat or pulling flax. Wheat was reaped with a 
hand sickle. Handful by handful the golden harvest 
was gathered, and many women gave their assist- 
ance in this work. Now, the self-binding harvester 
does the work of several hundred men with their 
sickles as in the days of yore, and the women con- 
fine themselves exclusively to indoor work. 

The first laborious duty assigned to me was to 
carry water to the fields of wheat or flax, where, 
perhaps, one or two of my older sisters and mother 
were pulling flax. 

When the flax was dry enough it was hauled to 
the barn, where the seed was threshed off, and the 
straw spread out on the meadow grass to bleach. 
When all this had been done, and when it had 
passed through the various stages of manufacture, 
we boys had the " pleasure of breaking in " a new 
shirt or a pair of new trousers. Do you fully under- 
stand the meaning of " breaking in," in this case ? 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 



We presume you do not, unless you have been the 
possessor of a linen suit ; unless you were suddenly 
dropped into a thorn bush, or laid down among 
nettles, you would not fully grasp its meaning. 

Well do I remember my mother's amiable dis- 
position. She possessed an even temper ; was mild, 
pleasant and cheerful ; industrious, patient, and 
charitable. 

Says Napoleon ; " The future destiny of the 
child is always the work of the mother." We in- 
herit from our mothers all those attributes which 
make us great, and owe our sudden downfall to 
none of her teachings. "A father may turn his 
back on his child/' says Washington Irving, 
" brothers and sisters may become inveterate en- 
emies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their 
husbands, but a mother's love endures through 
all ; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face 
of the world's condemnation, a mother still loves 
on, and still hopes that her child may turn from 
his evil ways and repent. She sees her son, 
who has committed murder and is led forth for 
execution, still she remembers the infant's smiles 
that once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry 
laugh, the joyful shout of his childhood, the open- 



HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



ing promise of his youth ; and she never can be 
induced to believe him at all unworthy." 

Even He, that died upon the Cross, in the last 
hour, in the unutterable agony of death, was mind- 
ful of his mother. 

The mother's love is indeed, the golden link 
that binds youth to old age. Through the mem- 
ories of a mother's love I am able to recall many 
incidents of my childhood days, for she it was who 
made home dear to me. . 

In the language of that drunken tramp printer, 
Wordsworth, who wrote that deathless lyric poem, 
"The Old Oaken Bucket," in which he says: 

" How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood 
When fond recollection presents them to view," 

the author finds his sentiments, and many pleasant 
memories of the old home are revived and pictured 
in the mind after having lain in oblivion for a half 
century. 

In my old age I find comfort in the thought of 
home, its surroundings, and how I enjoyed the com- 
pany of my brothers and sisters. Home ! no word 
in the English language approaches in sweetness 
the sound of this group of letters. Out of this 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 



grand syllable rush memories and emotions always 
noble. 

The murderer in his cell, his heart black with 
crime, hears this word and breaks into grief and 
sobs. It brings to him the sweet memories of child- 
hood when, perhaps, he was a good boy under his 
mother's care. He thinks of his mother, and of her 
kind words to him ; ol his youthful aspirations and 
future desires. What makes this word so touching 
to this rough man? Why, it was from home, the 
spot . to which his heart is tied with unseen cords 
and tendrils, 

When I was but four years old my parents sent 
me to summer school, in a log-school house. I was 
a mischievous lad, and one day my teacher took me 
to task and sat me on her lap. The scholars all 
laughed, and I squirmed like a captured rat. She 
proved too much for a four-year-old, of course, 
until I got hold of her finger with my teeth. She 
certainly got the worst of the affray, until the next 
day, when she gave me a sound flogging. My 
school days were few, for after I became old enough 
the duties of the farm devolved upon me. I was a 
gay and active youth, and took great interest in 
farm work, and especially in plowing. I found great 



10 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

pleasure in breaking colts to ride. Wheat raising 
was the principal farming, and father raised large 
crops of it ; sometimes as much as one thousand 
bushels, and often as high as two thousand, all of 
which was tramped out with horses on the thresh- 
ing floor; and at night we boys used to have a pic- 
nic in the barn, chaffing out the wheat that we had 
tramped out through the day. I used to have to 
ride day after day, and lead other horses in thresh- 
ing out a crop. It was very tiresome work, and to 
clear up a crop of one thousand bushels of wheat 
required several weeks' hard labor. The immediate 
duties of the farm kept me from school the most of 
the time, and hence I only studied the three " R's," 
— Readin', ; Ritin\ 'Rithmetic. 

I lived at home until 1846, when I was twenty- 
one years of age. I then decided to go to Indiana. 
I was accompanied by John Mishler and Mr. Pro- 
vand, two young associates of my age. I had never 
been away from home very much, and when the day 
of leaving came I left the old home with tears 
in my eyes. I walked to Magadore, about five 
miles off, where I met my friends who were to 
accompany me. We went up into Michigan first, 
and afterward to Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana, 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS 11 

where John Provand, brother of my companion, 
lived. Here we were kindly entertained, and, with 
blistered feet — for we had been walking a great 
deal, — we found an excellent place to recruit. 

After spending three years in the Hoosier State, 
and suffering with chills and fever for at least one- 
half of the time, I decided to go to California — the 
land of gold. Just at this time the gold fever was 
prevalent, and many men from all parts of the Union 
rushed to this far-off western country to seek their 
fortunes. At this time there were no railroads con- 
structed through the western states and territories 
to the Pacific coast, and the journey must either be 
made overland across the plains, or by the way of 
the ocean, around Cape Horn. Either route was 
long and perilous, and many an ambitious man, full 
of hopes and future desires, lost his life in the 
attempt to reach the "promised land." 

While in Indiana I had "a tough time," so to 
speak. Times were hard and money scarce, wages 
low, nine or ten dollars a month for a good farm 
hand. I chopped cord wood for twenty cents a 
cord. Many persons do not know the amount of 
hard labor in cutting a cord of wood. A good axe- 
man can chop two and a half cords a day by work- 
ing very hard and keeping at it for twelve hours. 



12 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

The winter of 1849 I went to school a few 
months to Mr. Pease, who talked of going to Cali- 
fornia. I became so enthusiastic over glowing 
accounts of the country and the immense fortunes 
that were being made, that I stopped going to 
school and began looking for an opportunity to go 
to California. I soon struck an old fox hunter who 
was going, and I made arrangements with him to 
make the trip. We talked over the plans and 
decided to start in March, 1850. I did not have 
money enough to pay my way. So he agreed to 
take me to the land of Eldorado, and I should work 
for him in the mines for two years; he was to board 
me, clothe me, and I was to give him one-half of 
my earnings. We wrote up an agreement to that 
effect. I had a young horse worth one hundred 
dollars, which I traded for a Canadian pony, which 
was to be a part of the team to carry us through. 

On the first of March we rigged up our teams 
and set out for St. Louis, Mo., where we shipped 
our goods and stock to Leavenworth, Kansas. 
There we camped for three weeks, waiting for the 
grass to grow enough to support our stock across 
the plains. 



MY BOYHOOD DAIS. IB 

When we were ready to start from there we 
joined others and formed a company and selected 
a captain, whose duty it was to go ahead and select 
suitable places for camping, and act in the capacity 
of "boss," as we called him. All the names of the 
company were enrolled, and every evening two men 
were selected to serve as guards for the fore part 
of the night, and two for the after part. We were 
in danger of the hostile Indians, and the guards 
were to fire a gun as a signal of danger, when all 
men should be in readiness for battle. About the 
third night after we left the settlements, we camped 
early, staked out our horses to graze, built a fire 
and all gathered around it, for it was chilly, and 
selected guards for the night. A young man from 
Illinois, whom many of us thought to be cowardly, 
was chosen. About eleven o'clock, while every- 
thing was still, and all of us were enjoying a " good 
snooze," we were aroused by a shot from a gun, 
and all of us sprang to our feet and seized our arms. 
On inquiry, we found that the supposed excitable 
"Sucker" had seen an Indian sneak up towards 
our horses, and had fired at him. Soon after one 
of the men noticed that one of the horses seemed 
uneasy, and he took a lantern to look after it. On 



14 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

examination we found that an old mare had been 
shot, which proved to be quite a severe flesh 
wound. Next morning we began to run the 
" Sucker," telling him he must not shoot our horses 
instead of Indians. We hooted and laughed at him, 
but he still claimed he had seen an Indian, and 
finally proved his assertions by showing moccasin 
tracks in the dust. It was supposed the Indian 
held something in his hand, which the bullet struck 
and was accidentally glanced to one side and struck 
the animal. 

Next morning we pursued our journey over hill 
and dale to the westward, where we struck the 
Platte River; here we began to notice herds of buf- 
falo. ' At night we camped on the bluffs about three 
miles from the river. Next morning, about daylight, 
we saw herd after herd of buffalo running from the 
river bottoms. We supposed that the grass had 
been set on fire by emigrants who had camped on 
the north side of the river, causing a stampede. I 
think there certainly must have ten thousand buffalo 
crossed the bottoms that day. We, concluding that 
it would be unsafe to travel, camped all day, and 
having noticed several buffalo calves falling behind 
the old ones, we thought they must be tired. I 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 15 

proposed to some of the men. that we take horses, 
cut them off from the herd and capture them, We 
did so, capturing two about six weeks old. We 
brought them into camp, killed and dressed them. 
We found them nice and fat, and, as fresh meat 
was a scarce article, we had a feast on buffalo veal. 
Next morning we journeyed over the prairies 
toward the land of gold. We saw quite a number 
of antelope. One of the company killed one, and 
we found it excellent eating. We became very 
much interested in finding game, and shot plenty of 
jack-rabbits, wolves and birds; and as we entered 
the rugged mountain region we saw occasionally a 
grizzly bear. ' We encountered much danger in 
crossing streams, as very few rivers had ferry boats. 
These mountain streams flow very rapidly, and are 
dangerous to cross. I remember very well what a 
time we had crossing the Green River, in Utah ter- 
ritory, which is a branch of the Colorado. This is 
quite a large river and has a strong current. We 
compelled our stock to swim, while we tightened 
our wagon boxes to ferry our goods over. We 
stretched a rope from shore to shore, which we 
used to help guide us across. It took us nearly all 
day to make the landing on the west shore, and 



16 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

then we continued our journey with renewed vigor. 

Near the Sweet Water river, in Utah territory, 
we passed what is called Chimney Rock, a tall, 
natural pillar of stone, hundreds of feet high. Some 
of the emigrants climbed as high as they could to 
carve their names on this grand column. 

For miles along the Sweet Water river were 
ledges of high rocks, and only one place could 
be found where we could reach the water to cross 
it, and this gap was known as the " Devil's Gate/' 
Just after we left the river we began to ascend the 
Rocky Mountains. 

We went up and down rough and rugged 
mountains, which it seemed impossible to do. 
When we descended the steepest places we tied a 
long rope to the hind axles of the wagon and locked 
all the wheels. With the rope the men held back, 
preventing the wagon from turning a somersault 
and crushing the horses. And thus it was that we 
went down many a steep slope of the Rockies. We 
reached the summit of the mountains about the 
middle of July, and saw it snow until the ground 
was white. We had gone right out of the scorch- 
ing winds of the mid-summer sun into snow and ice, 
and it made us feel stupid. Some of our crew got 



MY BOYHOOD BAYS. 17 

what is called the mountain fever, and were very 
sick. This did not last long, for in a few hours we 
were down where it was warm again. Just after we 
got down off the Rocky Mountains we struck the 
Humboldt, which seemed to be quite a large river, 
but became smaller as we went down towards its 
mouth, until it sank in the sands. At its mouth is 
a large slough, or swamp, where the water sinks 
into the ground. This is a peculiar river in many 
respects. Its water is just the color of lye, and 
contains many parts of alkali. The water was 
hardly suitable to drink, but we had none other. It 
is the opinion of many that this river has an under- 
ground current which carries its water to the ocean. 
When we reached the three roads leading to 
California I remember that the old fox hunter, with 
whom I was traveling, wanted to go to Fort Hall, 
about one hunded miles out of the way, to get a 
job of harvesting and buy some provisions. As I 
did not expect to stop on the way to do work, I did 
not like the idea of doing so, but the old hunter 
began to talk about the " articles of agreement," 
and that I should do whatever he said about the 
matter. I was not too hasty about the matter, and 
tried to reason with him. But no ; he and his 



18 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

nephew would not listen to what I had to say. 
They knew it all. They had ignored the articles 
of agreement right from the beginning; they thought 
I was under obligations to them. Some of the best 
men in the company heard us talking it over, and 
urged me to take my pony out of the team and 
travel with them, as they were going a different 
road. I had decided to do so. As the old fox 
hunter had but one horse in fit condition to travel, 
he and his nephew soon saw their dreadful condi- 
tion. 

Being left with but one horse, away off from 
any assistance, was a serious thing, and demanded 
their immediate attention. The woman foresaw 
their condition and began to cry, which was too 
much for me. She had been very kind to me while 
I was sick, and I felt that it would not be right to 
take the best animal from their team, and leave 
them utterly helpless. Says I, " Don't fret over 
this matter; I won't leave you in such distress." I 
went to the old man and told him that I thought he 
had not treated me just as he ought, and further, I 
was ready to settle with him, as I intended to go the 
rest of the way with the other company. 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 19 

I offered him my valuable pony for bringing me 
this far on the way. The old man protested against 
it, but finally agreed to take the pony and let me go. 

I made arrangements with a couple of Missou- 
rians to carry me through from there. They were 
to board me, and I should work so long for them in 
the mines to pay them. 

We started on the journey at once, by the way 
of Sutler's Cut-off through the Thousand Spring 
Valley. Here we found some wonderful springs ; 
some hot enough to boil eggs, and others within a 
few steps of good cool water. This valley certainly 
contains many wonderful natural curiosities. We 
found many things to amuse and instruct us. How 
wonderful God has created this world, even beyond 
the comprehension of the wisest men. 

Between the Humboldt river and the desert our 
horses became exhausted, and we had to stop to let 
them rest for a few days. When we came to the 
desert of forty miles, which lies between the Carson 
and Humboldt rivers, we had prepared for its cross- 
ing before we reached it by wading into the Hum- 
boldt river and pulling up wild clover, which we 
dried to pack on our horses. We decided to do 
most of our traveling by night, as it was scorching 



20 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

hot in the desert. We are about to mention a sad, 
but laughable circumstance which happened us as 
we were ready to start. We had placed a pack- 
saddle on the wildest horse we had, and loaded it 
with our cooking utensils, provisions, etc. When 
we got out into the desert about two miles the horse 
became frightened by the rattling of the camp 
kettles, got loose from us and ran like a buffalo, 
kicking, snorting, etc., until he lost all our stuff in 
the sand. What little provision we had was lost ; 
it consisting of a half dozen biscuits and enough 
rice to make a rice soup or two. We gathered 
what we could of the rice and bread, for we were 
about starved out. We suffered most from heat 
and thirst, as it was terribly warm, and we had no 
water but that nasty alkali from the Humboldt, 
which we carried in canteens. We were making 
for the Carson river, and were very anxious to get 
there. Before we reached the river by five miles 
we found a good spring of water, where we stopped, 
watered our horses, boiled what rice we had left, 
and rested until the cool of the evening, when we 
moved on toward the river, where we found good 
water and good pastures for our stock. 

We caught a few trout, and tried not to starve 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 21 

out, though the chances were in favor of our doing 
so. Here we met some Government Relief Com- 
panies, who claimed to be sent out by the United 
States Government to aid those who were really in 
needy circumstances. They sold everything so 
high that few could afford to buy. Most emigrants 
were without money and provisions, and were com- 
pelled to get along half-starved. 

Some would trade off their horses for provisions 
to those sharpers, who came out from California for 
that purpose. Many a horse was disposed of in 
this way for mere trifles, perhaps for twenty-five to 
thirty dollars. Could they have gotten through 
without this, and have let their animals recruited for 
a month or so, they could have realized two hundred 
dollars for them. 

I here had some difficulty with the " Pukes" 
with whom I was traveling. We were almost 
starved out, and I could endure no longer. Those 
traders wanted a man to help them awhile until the 
throng of emigration ceased, then they were going 
to California. As they offered me four dollars a 
day and good boarding, I thought it a pretty good 
opportunity for one out of money and nearly starved, 
so I decided to accept their offer, provided I could 



22 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

satisfy the Missourians who had brought me several 
hundred miles. We had stopped a little ways off 
the emigrant road to let our horses graze. We were 
entirely out of provisions, and had nothing at all for 
dinner. While we were resting I made the Missou- 
rians a proposition to stop off the journey, and pro- 
posed to leave it to a committee of three what it 
was worth to bring me that distance. Then I 
should settle it by giving my note, and leave with 
them my clothes and other things as security. 

They got mad, and one of the " Pukes" said 
"he would kick satisfaction out of me," and no 
sooner had he spoken than he ran up to where I was 
lying with my elbow on the ground, with my head 
resting on my hand, and kicked me just above the 
eye. I lay senseless for some time, and when I 
aroused again I found myself all bloody. I got up 
and staggered out to the road, where I saw some 
emigrants from Iowa. Here I related the circum- 
stance to them, and told them just how it happened, 
and they seemed to sympathize with me. They 
gave me a good dinner, which I appreciated very 
much, being almost starved. They loaned me a 
double-barreled shotgun, which I was to carry 
through to Hangtown, California, and leave with 
certain gentlemen. 



MY BOYHOOD BAYS. 23 

Here I was, away out in the wilderness, without 
a cent or a mouthful to eat. I could not think of 
starving, and made many vigorous efforts to shoot 
game of all kinds. I could occasionally shoot birds, 
which I roasted by placing them on a sharpened 
stick and holding them to the fire. I could not 
always find a bird, and so I went hungry most of the 
time. 

I was in constant danger of the Indians, and 
came near being captured once. While traveling 
along the emigrant road once, I noticed an Indian 
trail which led across a valley that seemed to be 
much nearer by five or six miles. I thought I 
would go across, and perhaps I could find some 
game. I could see the covered wagons on the 
other side of the river. While I was passing along 
through a thicket I saw two Indians, about four 
hundred yards off, approaching me, walking as fast 
as they could, with their bows and arrows in hand. 
I kept a close eye on them and walked as fast as I 
could toward the stream. When I reached it I 
walked right into the water and soon found that it 
was deep in the middle, so I tossed my gun across 
to the other shore. I swam across and saw that 
the Indians had changed their direction. It was 



24 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

now late in the evening and I was hungry. I looked 
and looked for game of any kind, but could find 
nothing, so I had to be content to lie down on 
the ground to sleep without a bite of supper. I 
carried an overcoat which was my bed. I saw a 
great many emigrants, but it was of no use to ask 
assistance of any kind. Those who were liberal 
found many opportunities to give, and consequently 
soon became destitute themselves. 

Starvation certainly looked me in the face. A 
young man and I went to a lake one Sunday morn- 
ing and caught frogs, the hams of which we cooked, 
and found excellent eating; the trouble was that 
we could not get enough of them. I was always on 
the lookout for something to eat, as I had hard 
work to keep from starving. Once I discovered 
some half-grown ducklings about the middle of a 
small lake ; I fired on them and killed two. Next 
thing was getting them ; so I undressed, waded out 
into the lake, half tickled to death thinking what a 
feast was so near at hand. I reached them by 
wading in up to my chin. Just as I reached the 
ducks and had turned around to go back to the 
shore, I saw two Indians with my gun in their hands 
examining it. What shall I do? passed quickly 
through my mind. 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 25 

There I stood out in the middle of the lake, and 
my clothes and gun in possession of the Indians. 
Horror stricken ! What shall I do ? My hair stood 
on end. Ah, reader, you cannot imagine one's feel- 
ings in such a plight ! While I stood there for three 
or four minutes I seemed to think of everything. My 
mind wandered back to my dear old mother, whom 
I so dearly loved, and who always shared her son's 
sympathy. 

I first thought I would swim across to the other 
side, but I at once saw that the mosquitos would 
eat me up. I became brave and started for the 
shore, and when I got about half way the Indians 
saw me and laid down the gun. While I was put- 
ting on my clothes they talked to each other, and 
pointing to a gingham necktie I wore, they said, 
" Swap ! Swap ! " offering me a small string of fish 
they had caught in the lake. I was glad to make 
the exchange, for I must confess that I did not 
enjoy their company in the least, and I skipped for 
the emigrant road, where I struck a couple of emi- 
grants camping. I cooked my fish by their fire. I 
was very tired and lay down early to sleep. It 
became very cool towards morning, and as it was 
moonlight, I arose and plodded on my way. 



26 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

There was great anxiety among the emigrants 
to reach the mining regions. They ran the risk of 
life to gain fame and fortune, and " to get a start in 
the world." Many a monstrous air castle was built 
on a frail foundation, and all, perhaps, demolished 
ere the " promised land " was reached. " For what 
shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul." — Mark viii: 36. 

As I traveled through the beautiful Carson 
River valley, with its numerous branches flowing 
down the sides of the mountains, I stopped by the 
wayside frequently to drink of the refreshing crystal 
water. It was in the month of August, and the 
snow-capped Sierra Nevada peaks were melting 
away. I was told at that time that the valley con- 
tained gold, and I met a few old " 4gers " prospect- 
ing. I did not stop here, but pressed onward. 
With my gun on my shoulders, and an overcoat 
thrown across the gun, I ascended the rough and 
steep Sierra Nevadas. As I approached the sum- 
mit I struck the snow line, where I found the snow 
deeper and deeper ; at places it was forty or fifty 
feet deep. 

When I reached the summit I was surprised to 
find one of my cousins from Indiana, who was 



MY BOYHOOD BAYS. 27 

traveling with a company of twelve, led by Captain 
Cary. My cousin invited me to travel with them 
the rest of the way, which I did, and found the 
whole company to be gentlemen. We were three 
and a half days in making the descent of eighty 
miles to Hangtown, California. Here we found a 
number of miners at work. Some were doing pretty 
well, while others were almost starving, and some 
offering to work for their board. As soon as we 
got there I began to inquire for work. I first spoke 
to the store-keeper. He said, " I can give you 
work if you can chop." I was a good chopper and 
knew I could please him. I stayed all night with 
him, and in the morning ground up an axe and he 
pointed to a tall pine tree about two feet in diameter. 
It was very warm, and as I was weak and tired out 
I could not stand it to chop very long without rest. 
When I had felled the tree I began to break off the 
foliage, and put it into a bag, which was to be used 
in the store as a carpet to keep down the dust, the 
floor being the bare ground. I was paid eight 
dollars for the two day's work, which I invested in 
provisions and started for the south fork of the 
American river, to look for work. There I found 
Captain Cary and his company, who had bought a 



28 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

claim, and, being inexperienced in mining, could 
not make it pay. They gave up their claim and 
disbanded the company. 

My cousin and I went back to Hangtown to try 
the mine there, but could not make it pay. We 
heard of Mr. Lynch, of St. Louis, who was working 
a mine not far off, and who was paying seventy-five 
dollars a month for miners. We boarded ourselves 
and did our own washing and mending. At the end 
of the month my cousin thought he would not work 
any longer, so he demanded a settlement with me. 
He claimed that I owed the company eleven dollars 
for traveling with them about eighty miles. He 
said there were eleven of the company, and that 
they had talked the matter over and decided that 
eleven dollars was about right. 

I paid him the money, but learned afterwards of 
Mr. Cary, captain of the company, that the com- 
pany did not charge me a cent. My cousin had 
also urged me to take a pair of old pants and a pair 
of half-wornout boots, which I supposed he gave to 
me, but charged me double price for them. I paid 
his unreasonable demands. After he got back from 
California he told that he had saved me from starv- 
ation. That they were passing along the road and 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 29 

saw a man lying near by, and giving a kick turning 
him over, was surprised that it was his cousin Girl, 
and that he took me to camp and nursed me. These 
are untruths. A lie doesn't hurt, but the truth does 
sometimes. Our good Master says that a liar can- 
not enter the kingdom of Heaven. 

I worked three months for Mr. Lynch, and in 
the meantime had became a good miner. I went 
to work on my own account, and made from four to 
five dollars a day. One expects t© find something 
rich all the time, and, indeed, it is very exciting 
work, so much so that one is likely to work too 
hard. Notices in the newspapers of miners strik- 
ing a rich find had a tendency to lend encourage- 
ment to the miner. What miner did not dream of 
fame and fortune ! Yet how few ever found either ? 

Sunday was the main business day in the 
towns. The miners always went to town on Sun- 
day to lay in a supply of provisions for the coming 
week. Sunday was also the great holiday and day 
of sport and gambling. I have seen piles of gold 
as large as a half bushel measure on the gambler's 
tables. The gamblers treated the miners liberally 
to get them drunk, so they could win their money. 
The poor fool miner would often lose his week's 
earnings on Sunday gambling with these sharks. 



30 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

The territory was overrun with all nationalities, 
anxious to find fortunes. Chinese, Spaniards, 
French, Irish, Dutch, Africans, Hungarians, Danes, 
Swedes, Hollanders, etc., all found a place. The 
native Californians are the Root Digger Indians, 
which were numerous then. They had some curious 
habits, which should be mentioned here. They 
used a basket made of willow to cook their soup 
in. They first tightened the basket with pitch pine 
gum, and cooked their soup by heating stones 
and putting them into the soup. When the soup 
has cooked enough to put their hands into it, then 
they are ready to eat it, which they do by dipping 
it up in their hands. 

In 1852 I left the mines on account of scarcity 
of water high up in the mountains. I went to Sac- 
ramento and San Francisco, and from there to the 
country, where I worked in harvest. After staying 
in the valley for three months and recruiting, Mr. 
Isaac Wamsley, from Southern Indiana, and I, 
bought us a Spanish pony and rode back to Mos- 
quito Canon mines. We worked together a short 
time, but our mine failed, and Wamsley went north. 
After a while I went into partnership with a Yankee, 
and a little Spaniard, who used to follow whaling 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 31 

on the sea. He was a native of Guann Island. In 
the winter of 1853 the weather was so wet that the 
roads became almost impassable for teams. It 
rained every day for six weeks; provisions became 
scarce in the mountains, and some of the miners 
killed venison and managed to keep from starving. 
We had a fair claim in shallow diggings, and we 
decided to buy a couple of pack-mules to carry pro- 
visions from the city. We did so, and I went to 
Sacramento to get provisions, which I bought at a 
wholesale store. While in the city the levees of 
the Sacramento river gave way and flooded the 
city. In many streets it was too deep to ford, and 
so I got my mules over and hired a boatman to row 
my provisions across so I could leave the town. It 
cost me just eleven dollars to get out of the city with 
four hundred pounds of provisions. Before I got 
home I encountered more difficulty. However, it 
did not amount to much. When I was within five 
miles of home I passed a little grocery store kept 
by an Irishman, who came out and claimed one of my 
mules. He said someone had stolen him out of his 
pasture. I told him that I bought the mule of an 
old gentleman who had come from Nevada. He 
said he knew better, that it was his mule and he 



32 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

wanted it right then. I then told him that I 
doubted very much whether he ever saw the mule, 
or whether he ever owned a mule. The Irishman 
got mad and began to pelt .me with stones. I 
would not take that, so I got off and convinced him 
that two could work at that, and make it livelier, 
too. I soon sent him in a hurry to his business. 

When I reached the mines I found the little 
Spaniard and the Yankee in good spirits, as they 
had struck plenty of gold. 

Miners had hard times, and a great many were 
no better prepared on leaving the mines that when 
they came. " It is not all gold that glitters." 
Mining is to be compared with a lottery ; uncertain 
business, and few become wealthy. The best 
mines were deep in the bowels of the earth, and it 
required capital to reach the precious metal. 

Many miners spent their money freely, and 
especially so at the saloons. Twenty-five cents for 
a drink, and the same for a cigar. We had no 
silver or gold change then, and so the dust was 
weighed out on scales for that purpose. 

Many a man who left a happy home in the East 
went to California and turned out to be a regular 
gambler, drunkard, and thief. Many murders, rob- 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 33 

beries, and other depredations were committed. I 
saw four men hanged at Coloma, Eldorado County. 
One was a married school-teacher, by the name of 
Crane, who had fallen in love with a young girl. 
She wanted to marry him, but her parents objected 
because he had a deserted wife and children in the 
East. He shot her. 

Another man was a gambler, who had cut the 
throat of a fellow-gambler in a quarrel over a game 
of cards. 

In 1856 I took a very sudden notion to leave the 
" Golden State," though I did so with some regrets, 
as California has a delightful climate and many 
other attractive characteristics. During the time I 
spent on the coast many improvements were made, 
and the State had doubled in population and 
changed from a territorial government to one of the 
Union. It was admitted as a State in 1850. 

I purchased my ticket at San Francisco, via 
Panama, to New York. While waiting at San 
Francisco for the steamer, a ship arrived, and some 
of the passengers got into trouble on account of a 
drunken man, who went up to a fruit stand kept by 
the natives and asked for a quarter of a watermelon ; 
it was given him and he took a bite of it and threw 



34 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

it away and walked off without paying for it. This 
put the natives in fighting order, and they killed 
several innocent persons and wounded a number of 
passengers. The guilty drunkard escaped unin- 
jured, but caused the death of several innocent 
people. 

When we arrived at Panama the captain of the 
ship ordered that all passengers aboard go direct to 
the cars, which were to carry us across the Isthmus 
to Aspinwall, a distance of forty miles. He did so 
to prevent any trouble which might occur between 
us and the natives. It took about three hours to 
transfer us from the ship to the cars. It required 
but a short time to reach Aspinwall, where we 
waited half a day for the steamer which took us to 
New York. 

A few days' sail from Aspinwall took us out of 
sight of land. We were in a storm which lasted 
twenty- four hours and was very severe; it looked 
as though we would be lost. The waves dashed 
high, and as they surged to and fro they seemed 
like great mountains. Many times they washed 
the decks clean, and struck as high as the sails. 
The sailors were compelled to tie themselves to the 
masts to keep from being washed away. While the 






MY BOYHOOD DATS. 35 

worst was going on some were on their knees pray- 
ing, while others were swearing. After the storm 
subsided we had a pleasant trip. The following 
language of Irving I find applicable in this case. 
He says in* 'The Voyage:" — "To one given to 
day-dreaming, and fond of losing himself in reveries, 
a sea voyage is full of subjects for meditation ; but 
then they are the wonders of the deep and of the 
air, and tend to abstract the mind from worldly 
themes. I delighted to loll over the quarter railing 
or climb to the main-top on a calm day, and muse 
for hours together on the tranquil bosom of the 
summer's sea; — to gaze upon the piles of golden 
clouds just peering above the horizon ; fancy them 
some fair realms, and people them with a creation 
of my own ; to watch the gentle undulating billows, 
rolling their silvery volumes, as if to die away on 
these happy shores. 

"There was a delicious sensation of mingled 
security and awe with which I looked down from 
my giddy height on the monsters of the deep at 
their uncouth gambols ; shoals of porpoises tumbling 
about the bow of the ship ; the grampus slowly 
heaving his huge form above the surface ; or the 
ravenous shark, darting like a spectre through the 



36 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

blue waters. My imagination would conjure up all 
that I had heard or read of the watery world beneath 
me ; of the finny herds that roam its fathomless 
valleys ; of the shapeless monsters that lurk among 
the very foundations of the earth, and of the wild 
phantoms that swell the tales of fishermen and 
sailors." 

How one lulls away the time in meditation as 
the ship glides through the noble waters of the 
deep. 

At a distance we could see the whale, king of 
the sea, spouting water, and the huge albatross 
swaying to an fro, which enables it to fly day after 
day without stopping. We saw whole "flocks " of 
flying fish, which do not really have wings, but have 
peculiar side fins, which they use in making a leap 
out of the water, and sailing off a hundred yards or 
so. They have enemies in the air as well as in the 
sea. When the shark gets after them they fly out 
of the water, and they _are in danger of the sea 
fowls. 

We came by the way of Havana, Cuba, and 
were twenty-four days coming from San Francisco 
to New York. 

I spent several days in New York, taking in the 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. ■ 37 

sights, and from there I went by rail to Cleveland, 
Ohio, and from there to Canton, near my home. 

Now, dear readers, I have written my history 
from my birth to 1883, and before Our Father in 
Heaven, I vouch for the truth of every word, and 
it is my heart's desire to place this book before this 
great American people so that every man, woman, 
and child that reads it may see how a once happy 
family was broken up by what are called religious 
teachers, but they are nothing but a set of imposters, 
and when their teachings were not in harmony with 
the word of God, they were too proud to acknow- 
ledge the truth and admit that they were wrong, 
but preferred to continue in their lying, in order to 
damage my character, because I would not partake 
of their devilish deeds, and in their last resort by 
their false swearing, they obtained a warrant for my 
arrest, and had me placed in prison on the plea of 
insanity, for the purpose of having me separated 
from them, so they could go on in their hellish 
crimes of sin unmolested; but Christ tells us in. 
Matt. 5-3: " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
theirs is the kingdom in heaven." 

Now I have returned to my native state, and in 
good health, hale and hearty. I looked around me 



38 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



and saw a wonderful change in the ten years of my 
absence. I visited the old farm where I spent all 
my boyhood days. The old brick house looks as 
natural as it did in years gone by. I went to the 
large bank barn, with its two threshing floors in it, 
where I used to ride the horses to tramp out clover 
seed, wheat and oats, when I was a boy. The barn 
seemed very natural to me — no change only a new 
roof. The farm was as good a one as could be 
found in Stark county, and there was a fortune in 
that farm for all of us. It was not in the rich and 
productive soil, but happened to be in the bowels of 
the earth, not in the many precious metals, like 
California's rugged hills and mountains, but in a 
bed or layer of coal in a meadow bottom, only from 
three to five feet from the surface of the earth. 
When I was a small boy I remember that we found 
coal and limestone in that bottom, but at that time 
timber was in our way, and timber was used for 
fuel instead of coal, but of late years coal has taken 
the lead in the way of fuel, and it became valuable, 
and there lay a fortune before our eyes, but we 
went away from it. My father came to the State of 
Illinois, I think in the year 1848, and moved to 
Stephenson county, where he died. He was the 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 39 

owner of about one thousand acres of the richest 
prairie lands, but they were not so valuable as the 
Ohio farm that he sold cheap because he got the 
Illinois fever, and so he left a certainty for an un- 
certainty, as I did in the gold mines of California. 
I bought an interest in a river claim on the south 
fork of the American river, lost money and time, 
left a certainty for an uncertainty, and worked for 
five dollars per day. After we left our shanty on 
the hillside, a lucky fellow struck a lead of gold that 
paid rich, that ran right through the shanty we had 
left to do better. I was told they found a lump of 
gold weighing several pounds, about four feet 
under the ground where we slept. Thus, you see, 
the mining life is very uncertain. 

Well, I made a visit among my relatives and old 
acquaintances for several weeks, then took my leave 
from my two kind sisters and went to the State of 
Indiana, and made a stop of several weeks with my 
brother Joseph before I started for California in 
1850, and when there with him I worked very hard, 
chopping cordwood and making rails. 

When I left California in 1856 I came by way of 
Chicago on horseback. Chicago was, in that early 
day, a very small city, but gradually increased in 



40 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

population, until it now numbers in the hundreds of 
thousands, ranks third in commerce, and is almost 
king of cities in our great republic. From that city 
I made my way to Stephenson county, Illinois, where 
my parents live. I arrived at home after dark, and 
called as a stranger. One of my younger brothers 
came out, and I asked him if they could keep a 
stranger all night. Brother Peter answered that he 
would ask his father, who soon came out as lively 
as a cricket, and active as a young man, and said 
" yes, sir, you can stay; " and we had a very nice 
time when all of us got together. I remained in 
that neighborhood that winter, making my home 
with my brother-in-law the most of the time, and in 
the following spring, on April 26, 1857, I was mar- 
ried to Lucinda Brice Hart, of Stephenson county, 
and after my marriage moved on to my farm, and 
there remained until 1865, then moved to Macon 
county and bought a farm there, and have there re- 
sided ever since up to this date, living and enjoying 
a very happy and prosperous life. 

I have lived, or tried to live, a moral life, and have 
tried to do my duty towards my fellow-men ; but 
have finally concluded in my own mind, that accord- 
ing to the word of the Great Redeemer's command- 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 41 

ments, there was something more demanded of us 
than just living a moral life, and believe there is 
only a step or two to make from a good moral life 
to becoming a good Christian. 

I had, at this time, a great many calls, from 
preachers of various denominations, to join with 
the people of God and become a Christian. Myself 
and wife had been attending revival meetings that 
were held for weeks in what was called the Dunk- 
ard's brick meeting-house, north of me several miles. 
Here some very able speakers, such as preached 
the Word of Truth as I understand it, induced me 
to examine the Scriptures, for I had already had 
that passage of Scripture committed to memory : 
" Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye 
have eternal life, and they are they which testify of 
me." — John \ -39. 

Myself and wife had been attending those meet- 
ings very frequently, and my dear wife became 
converted to the Dunkard's faith and practice, and 
was baptized, I think, in January, 1872. It was in 
cold weather, and they had to remove the ice, about 
a foot thick, where I saw my side companion being 
led into the water with a number of other converts, 
who knelt down in the water and there received the 



42 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

grace of God. May God help her is my prayer. 
At that time I was converted and found my Saviour, 
and determined then and there to become a worker 
in the Lord's vineyard, and I meditated on those 
named verses, and tried to weigh well my under- 
taking. I was well aware that it was a big under- 
taking to live a religious life in this perverted and 
sinful world, but I resolved to go and work in the 
Lord's vineyard. I weighed my undertaking well. 
I knew that if I made a failure of my profession of 
religion that I would be laughed to scorn, and I 
resolved to try, and in a few days after my wife was 
baptized I followed her good example, and was 
baptized in the same stream, down on my knees, 
with the old pastor by my side, and there I made 
the good and solemn confession. I was also asked 
if I was willing to give and take counsel, to re- 
nounce Satan in all his pernicious ways, and whether 
I was willing to submit, and try to live up to those 
rules and order of the Church of God, which are 
laid down for all the members of the church, found 
in Matthew xviii, which I was taught by some of 
the well versed. The solemn scene made a great 
impression on my mind, and it put me to work to 
search the Scriptures. After we returned home I 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 4£ 

got out my testament, opened it, and I think the 
first chapter I turned to was Matthew xx., and read 
down to the seventh verse, when I went back and 
read the sixth verse over again. My wife's and 
my church relations ran very smooth for some three 
or four years, then came some trouble to us uncalled 
for. I will give a brief statement of the first 
troubles between myself and many of the members 
of the church. It was as follows : I had bought a 
quarter section of land of a preacher by the name 
of Leonard Blickenstaff, for which I had paid some 
cash, and given my note for $500, in yearly install- 
ments. The contract was for those notes to draw 
interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum. 
One note, that came to maturity at the end of four 
years from date, was made, by a mistake of the 
'Squire, to draw ten instead of six per cent., and it 
was overlooked by me, and I expect by the other 
party ; but to speak positively we will just say 
what we know of our own observations. I will 
speak for myself, that when that note at ten per 
cent, matured, it was placed in the hands of an 
executor, a Dunkard preacher by the name of 
Henry Troxil, who was appointed to settle up the 
estate of the deceased. He came to me for pay- 



44 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

ment of the note at the end of four years, and it 
read ten per cent, interest from date. I told him it 
was a mistake, and asked him what I should do in 
the case. He gave me no counsel ; he did not 
know; but assured me he was under duty to collect 
the note with the interest named. I went to see 
two of the deacons of the church, and asked them 
how I should proceed to get out of the matter. 
They said go and pay it to Troxil, and we will pay 
the four per cent, back to you. The note was paid 
in due time by me, without any words between 
myself and the executor, and when I demanded my 
lour per cent, overpaid, they refused, and even 
denied the promises they had made to me. They 
were deacons in the church, and it finally came to 
a church trial. 

Through the influence of the elder of that 
church, who was an uncle of the heirs, and by much 
persuasion, I was induced to place my case in the 
hands of a committee of three bishops who came 
from a distance, viz. : Henry Davy, from Ohio, 
Enoch Ely, from the north part of this State, and 
R. H. Miller, from Indiana. I proved before the 
said committee, by a brother in the church, that the 
deceased told him that he had sold his land to me 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 45 

at six per cent, interest on the notes given, but for 
some reason the committee decided in favor of the 
heirs, and threw me out of my just dues. I was not 
well satisfied with the decision, but had a timidness 
to say much about it; but some good thinking 
people advised me to submit to the case, with the 
admonition that it was better to give than to take. 
I have since had three or four church trials before 
that same official board of the church, but have not 
been able to get justice in said church. 

I also had a trial over in the Okaw Church, 
before Bishop Wagner, but from the partiality for 
overreaching the line of our District Church, I was 
overpowered there, and my antagonist found in 
some way that the members of that church had 
nothing to ask of him, although he was guilty of 
helping to disturb the peace of my family. About 
one of the last church trials I had was with a man by 
the name of Quickell, who moved from our neigh- 
borhood to Pennsylvania. He wanted to get the 
advantage of me, and I reported him to Bishop John 
Raffensherger, of Clear Springs, York county, 
Pennsylvania, and the bishop took the case in hand. 
The agent whom Quickell had appointed to loan 
his money for him, found out that I was going to 



46 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

bring Quickell before the Council, and began to 

write untruths to him, in order to defeat me in my 

church trial, but I did not take much notice of such 

unfair proceedings, got an invitation to come down 

to attend the church trial, and gained a good victory 

among strange, imported brethren, and also got a 

good recommendation from the well-meaning old 

bishop, reading thus : — 

" Clear Springs, York Co., Nov. 4th, '83. 
"Dear Brother — Your card of the 31st of October is at hand, 
and in reply I can say for myself and the brethren, as far as I 
heard from there, they spoke well of you, and I can, and the 
brethren say, your conduct was christianlike. You came here 
amongst us like a brother ; you was willing to submit to the pro- 
posed plan in your's and QuickelFs case, and everything in 
Quick ell's case was settled up nicely and brotherly : but 
Quickell did not conduct himself to you as he ought, and is now 
divided from the agreement by the committee as decided. I 
have written to you a letter ; I hope you have got it by this time. 

J. H. Raffensherger. 

The above is a true copy of the old bishop's 

card of recommendation about my conduct and 

transactions in the above case of a church trial 

between myself and a miserly man. A man that 

will agree to leave a matter in a committee's hands 

to be settled, and again to a committee, make up 

with his antagonist, and the next day go back on 

the committee's decision for the small sum of 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 47 

twenty-eight dollars, does well deserve the name of 
miser. " What does it profit a man to gain the 
whole world and lose his own soul?" as did Esau 
when he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. 
Oh ! that the people might see and feel that the 
love of money is the root of all evil. Oh ! how we, 
as christian professing people, can yield to such 
low and debased things. May the power of God 
and all his angels descend down on such a set 
of hungry money-seeking, hypocritical set of Dunk- 
ards. They spurn pride by way of dress, and tell 
the wearers, if they chance to come to their meet- 
ings, that that hat, or that feather, will send them 
to hell unless they stop wearing them. Now, reader, 
look around you, and see whether you can see any 
pride in their works. I think you can see their fine 
barns, their fine horses, and their fine farms ; then 
see their uneducated children in society ; yes, there 
is ignorance. They will lie and steal from their 
members and everybody else to get this money to 
build up their pride, and then try to hide it behind 
their big-rimmed hats — and that is the]reason they 
will not wear a fashionable hat, as there is]not room 
enough to hide their sins behind it. You cannot 
rob your fellow man and go to heaven. No, hell is 



48 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

the place for such people. You are commanded by 
the Holy Bible to do the will of God, and you was 
told so by His Son, and now quit your thieving, and 
do His will and increase your faith. 

I wish to say something more about the miserly 
one that I had some business with. Not being sat- 
isfidd with going back on an intelligent committee's 
work, he wrote to his Irish agent that wrote him 
the untruths in order to defeat me in the church 
trial, and the agent would not give up my papers 
until I paid him two dollars, he saying that it was 
my place to pay for the release of the mortgage he 
held to secure him on the loan of $1,800 ; but the 
Irish agent said he would hand it back to me as soon 
as he had time to inform himself, and find out if it 
was his place to pay for the release, but he refused 
to hand back the two dollars, and thinks he has 
played a cunning trick on me, when he is really 
doing himself more harm than to his opponent. I 
don't know whether the agent has kept the two 
dollars, or whether he sent it to the miserly brother. 
If I am allowed to judge, I would say that it is no 
more than likely they divided the amount between 
themselves ; but the agent may have kept it all. 
He threatened to sue me for slander, and my wife 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 49 

hearing the rumor, went to see Mrs. Sowarn, wife 
of the Irish agent, and asked her if Mr. Girl slan- 
dered her. She said, " No, Mr. Girl did not slander 
me. Any one that said he slandered me tells a 
fib." That relieved my wife's mind, but it brought 
the agent into a tight place. His dear wife must 
have known that her husband went to court and 
swore that he would not believe me under oath. I 
will let the good thinking people judge who is the 
liar. The supreme ruler of the universe will judge all 
things properly. We will not forget that Paul had 
said the love of money is the root of all evil. I 
have heard from the old Bishop that the miser 
Quickell, with whom I had the trouble, got into a 
difficulty with one of his neighbors, by leaving his 
field open so that his neighbor's hog got into the 
field. He got after it with his dog and a pitchfork, 
and it was said that he killed the hog with the fork. 
The hog weighed about three hundred pounds. 
He afterwards went and told the owner that it was 
an accident ; that he could not get his savage dog 
to let go the hog. We think the man was more to 
blame than the dog. He settled with the man for 
the hog, I think for ten dollars, perhaps one-third 
the value of it ; but it seems that the owner of the 



50 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

hog was not satisfied after he found out that he had 
been told a falsehood. I don't know how it was 
settled in the end. It seems that dishonest men 
get out of one trouble only to become entangled in 
another. Will it pay to be honest ? Every con- 
sistent man, woman and child will say, yes, it will 
pay. The author of the royal path of life says yes, 
and it is well said that " an honest man is the noblest 
work of God." The blessed Word of God says 
we shall provide things honestly before God and 
man, and live soberly and righteously in the present 
world. 

Now, I have many things to say, in order to 
explain to the reader the number of enemies I had 
to fight with for many years, and a great number 
of persons were brought to court to testify that 
they would not believe me under oath, and they 
planned to injure my character, and have me sent 
to the Insane Asylum. We will name them out, 
and we will produce their evidence, and let the 
reader judge for himself. We will name a deacon 
in the Oakley Church. The deacon's evidence will 
be brought up in this particular case in order to 
show the whole conspiracy, and as I am sure it was 
all done through malice, we will endeavor to show, 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 51 

by their evidence, that it was one common bundle 
of malice by a certain clique, who joined themselves 
together to try and crush me in such a devilish way 
— to try and destroy me body and soul ; and I will 
not hesitate in naming them, and in giving their 
evidence as far as I can remember it on the witness 
stand, as I think that every one who testified in 
that way has perhaps willingly perjured himself, 
and I want an equal chance with them. There is 
not one of them I would dare to trust in any case 
in court. The deacon's name I will now give. 
George Funk came to court and testified that he 
would not believe me under oath. I will produce 
his evidence to try to prove me insane, but he failed 
to make a single point, and exposed his ignorance 
before the court. He was asked whether he 
believed Mr. Girl to be insane, and he said, " Yes, 
he did," and his reasons for thinking so was that 
" Mr. Girl was riding around over the country and 
calling some of the people religious fools and hypo- 
crites," and that Mr. Girl was abusing his family so 
that they could not live with him. He said two of 
his boys came to his house, and he even came over 
there to talk with the boys, and that he sent his son 
Chris, to drive him home, but said to the lawyer 



52 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

that they did not know what the old man was talk- 
ing about to the boys, but he supposed the old man 
was quarreling with them ; when it is an evident 
fact that I was reasoning, or trying to reason with 
my sons. On one occasion he went to see my son 
Charley, a minor, who has been under Funk's 
influence, and was employed by the Funks against 
his father's consent. After I was released out of 
prison and acquitted, and pronounced a sane man, 
and the jurors said Mr. Girl was too smart for 
them, George Funk contended that I was incompe- 
tent to judge, and of course things got pretty hot, 
and finally the matter came before the church, and 
he made his boast, "you bring me before the coun- 
cil, and I will show you that I have some friends 
there," for the very old bishop, J. Wagner, and the 
whole official board favored him, and they had no 
acknowledgement to ask of him, for he belonged to 
their precinct of church, though I had charged him 
with disturbing the peace of my family in various 
ways. 

At one-time I went on business to the deacon, 
and met^him in his creamery. I tried to tell him 
how he was a tool in my antagonists' hands to help 
to destroy j| the m peace of my once loving family. He 



MY BOYHOOD BAYS. 53 

got angry, and I walked away from him, and he 
after me with his fists clenched, red-hot, and bant- 
ered me for a fight. As we were both members of 
the same church, and were raised in one neighbor- 
hood in the State of Ohio, I thought it would be a 
shame for two old religious fools to fight a prize- 
fight. They intimated I was a fool because I stood 
alone fighting the devils, or, I might say, a legion 
of them behind the cloak of religion. The deacon 
made the remark, while he was attending court, 
that " the Dunkards don't fight very ©ften, but when 
we do fight we fight like the teffie." He is like 
myself. He never learned the English language 
properly, and yet the above-named deacon went 
into court, and swore he had no malice against me. 
I will give one or more evidence to the reader, 
then I will let them judge whether there was any 
malice in him or not. One of my witnesses testified 
that the deacon asked Mr. W. Kimberlin whether 
he thought that Mr. Girl was somewhat out of 
balance in his mind, or something to that effect. 
Kimberlin said to him that he never saw anything 
in Mr. Girl that he thought not right, and that he 
thought Mr. Girl a nice man. Funk then said: 
" Well, I told William Girl to go ahead and have 



54 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

him arrested, and we would help to pay his expenses 
in the case if he lost it." And the boy did arrest 
his father under such fellows' influence, and the 
pony purse was acknowledged by him and his son 
Chris, in the court room. His outlaw son, Chris, 
also swore on the witness stand that he had no 
malice against me. Well, we will see, as actions 
speak louder than words. I am a jocular man, and, 
of course, had a right to joke those ignoramuses. 
I told the old deacon and his son to look in the look- 
ing-glass if they wanted to see insanity. That got 
them up to .fever heat, and the young outlaw 
sneaked up one evening after a Dunkard meeting 
was dismissed, and took me by the throat in the 
dark outside of the school-house, and demanded a 
promise to never throw such jokes at him, and to 
keep silent. I refused t@ make any such promise, 
and he struck me in the face. I had my overcoat 
hanging over my shoulders, and in backing up to 
get away from the young outlaw it fell to the 
ground. He was taken before 'Squire Lowry, and 
plead his own case, and swore that I pulled off my 
overcoat to fight him. I did not strike him at all. 
He was fined by the 'Squire, I think, eighteen 
dollars and costs for assault and battery. After 



MY BOYHOOD DAYS. 55 

that he made his boast that he had whipped the old 
devil once, and that he would like to lick him again, 
and at the same time said the old devil was crazy, 
and ought to be sent to Jacksonville. The young 
outlaw had a great deal to do with my family, and 
it was proved at court that he was a kind of a 
captain in what I called the Ridge mob, and he was 
the chief one among the sinners. May God have 
mercy on his poor soul. Without an extra effort 
the poor ignoramus will be lost. The poor sinner 
has come and quarreled with me, and called me an 
old liar and everything that was mean, in order to 
get me to fight, so that he might indulge in his 
criminal passions, not knowing that he was doing a 
low and debasing act ; and when his old father was 
laid in his grave, his sister shed copious tears, for 
within her heart there was sympathy for mankind, 
but it was plain to be seen that he was a hard- 
hearted wretch, for not a tear fell to moisten his 
eyes. 



BISHOP DAVID FRANTZ. 



This venerable old bishop has been an active 
worker in this case of persecution. He belongs to 
the Cerro Gordo cousining ring, one of the party 
that is in authority, and when he was on the witness 
stand, he testified as having dealings with Mr. 
Girl, and that he found him honest and fair in all of 
his dealings ; and yet he came to court to help per- 
secute me. I want the reader to read this bishop's 
evidence carefully, and see what a big deposit of 
religion he has. He is compared to gold, but is 
poor in precious metal, and abundant in alloy, and 
especially in cheap stuff. 

As I want only an equal chance with my fellow- 
man in order to establish my rights, I have to be 
personal in this matter before us. I shall be so 
personal as to name out all that took an active part 
in this heathenish persecution to falsely imprison 
a man, and confuse a once lovely and pleasant 



BISHOP DAVID FRANTZ. 57 

family. I shall especially bear hard on those who 
have long been in the pulpit teaching others, mark- 
ing out the road to heaven to their congregations, 
and claiming that God has ordained them to speak, 
and teach the people how to get to heaven, pre- 
tending to have a great zeal for God, and great care 
for the flocks that are under their care as a shepherd. 
Those pious-looking shepherds, so-called, would 
preach up the parable of our Saviour, that the good 
shepherd will leave the ninety and nine and seek 
that which is lost. I will single out those who 
made a pretense that they were carrying out the 
Saviour's instructions in those parables, as they 
claim that they have tried to carry out the Saviour's 
plain commands. As we shall know the tree by its 
fruit we will now give some of the fruit of those 
teachers of the Divine Word, by giving their actions, 
as they speak louder than words. 

I clearly and distinctly remember the testimony 
of David Frantz at court, with the solemn oath he 
gave to God and to many witnesses, to testify to 
the truth and nothing but the truth. To that effect 
has this D. Frantz made his solemn promise before 
God and man. We will now give the evidence 
produced on the stand in the case of Lewis Beery, 



58 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

a son-in-law of mine, in the case of assault and bat- 
tery. The old bishop was induced in some way by 
an evil spirit to be willing to come to the court to 
testify in behalf of the brutal son-in-law's case. 
Lawyer Bunn was my counselor. D. Frantz was 
called. 

Ques. — Mr. Frantz, do you know Mr. Girl ? 

Ans. — Yes, I have known him fer years. 

Ques. — How is Mr. Girl for truth and veracity ? 

Ans. — Not good. 

Ques. — Mr. Frantz, would you believe Mr. Girl 
on oath ? 

Ans. — No, I would not. 

Ques. — Did you ever have much dealing with 
Mr. Girl? 

Ans. — Oh, yes ; I had a right smart of dealing 
with him, and must say all the dealing I ever had 
with him was all fair and square, and he sometimes 
paid his obligations before they were due. 

Ques. — Well, Mr. Frantz, I guess you don't 
like Mr. Girl very well ? 

Ans. — No, I wish we could run him out of the 
country. 

Lawyer. — That will do, Mr. Frantz. 



BISHOP DAVID FRANTZ. 59 

He left the stand like a shorn sheep. The 
Scripture says the followers of Christ shall all be of 
the same mind, speak the same things. This 
shepherd said he would like to run Mr. Girl out of 
the country. His colaborer said, in his own house, 
"Chris., I believe you are a christian; I believe 
you try to do right before God and man." These 
old veterans may deny these facts, but the truth 
will stand when heaven and earth shall pass away. 

I will give some of the conversation that took 
place outside of the court- room a long time before 
I was arrested on false pretences. I went to both 
of these old bishops, just mentioned as colaborers 
in what is termed God's moral vineyard, and put 
the same question to both. I will give the exact 
language. I said to D. Frantz : "Did I honor you 
with double honor, as the Scripture demands that 
we should honor a bishop that rules well?" He 
answered, " I believe you did, Chris. " I then said, 
" Don't you know I did well ? " "I think you did." 

I then approached his colaborer, J. Metziger, 
in the same way. He did not want to answer the 
question, and tried to draw my attention from it, 
but I told him to "hold on, Johnny; this is a fair 
question, and I must have an answer to it," and he 
gave it, " I believe you did." 



60 HUMAN BE PR A VITT. 

After that they sent two deacons to hunt up a 
letter written by me to John Sowarn, and it was a 
very personal letter, not against the bishops, but 
against John Sowarn. It so happened that I was 
scarce of paper, and took a sheet to write to 
Sowarn that had their names on it. I had made 
an application to get a certificate of membership to 
go to Pennsylvania to attend a church trial. I will 
give the words of the certificate : 

"This is to certify that C. Girl is a member of the Cerro 
Gordo German Baptist Church. J. Metziger, 

D. Frantz, 
A. Snider." 

This good old bishop has taken an active part 
in this heathenish persecution. He was willing to 
have a skeptic brother of mine brought from Indi- 
ana to testify against me the time the suit was with- 
drawn. He and Bingamer, and some more evil and 
false professors, went to the telegraph office with 
the blindfolder brother, George Girl, who was called 
from Muscatine, Iowa. I think George was per- 
suaded by those old bishops, and an outlaw of a 
young preacher, to telegraph for the skeptic brother 
from Elkhart, Indiana. They were greedy to do 
evil, and that falsely and with evil intent. They 



BISHOP DAVID FRANTZ. 61 

did not like the idea of my son withdrawing the 
suit, but by some wise instructor the boy was induced 
to withdraw it, and those evil-doers telegraphed my 
brother in Indiana to come and assist them in their 
evil work to try and get me in the insane asylum. I 
wonder if the reader will fully understand these evil 
men's intentions that they had in their corrupt hearts. 
My brother at Elkhart refused to come. He had 
sense enough to stay out of such a scrape, and an- 
swered those ignoramuses that he would not come, 
and he afterwards wrote to one of my children that 
" Uncle George was a little insane instead of his 
brother Chris." Brother Joseph had that about 
right. Joseph is a deacon in the Dunkard Church, 
but is religiously blind. The old bishop, D. Frantz, 
has taken an active part in such unfair and ungodly 
actions, and we think him, and the devil-hired hand, 
A. Bingamer, the leaders of the mob. My wife 
told me that when they came to court to appear 
against me, Mr, Frantz and the boy preacher stood 
a little ways from her, and were holding a consulta- 
tion about their defeat, as I had played a good joke 
on all my antagonists by disappearing the day be- 
fore the trial. I made my way south to Mt. Vernon, 
away from those vicious devils, but they got to- 



62 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

gether in the court-room and were wondering what 
had become of their victim, that they had tried to 
drive crazy, but were unable to accomplish their 
hellish design, and as they were defeated, it con- 
fused them, and they placed their evil heads together 
to plan out something else. My wife heard A. 
Bingamer say to Elder Frantz, " David, how would 
it be if we got Sister Girl to swear her life against 
Chris.?" Old Davy turned his eyes up so as to 
take a serious thought about the question just asked 
by a young outlaw, one that was hardly fit to live, 
and not prepared to die. The old bishop said, in 
answer to the young devil, "Well, I guess that 
wouldn't hardly do." My wife was weak-minded 
from the trouble of having her family all confused 
and broken up and scattered. My dear and well- 
wishing reader, what do you think of such move- 
ments from people that profess to love the Lord, 
and have the love of God in their hearts! Well 
might we say: " O ye generation of vipers." "Cease 
to do evil, and learn to do good," is the Saviour's 
instruction to his followers. I will let the reader 
judge in this matter, whether those pious-looking 
men have carried out the Saviour's instructions. 
The Scriptures say we, as followers of Christ, 



BISHOP DAVID FRANTZ. 63 

shall be all of the same mind ; shall all speak the 
same thing. Well, we will see whether those old 
bishops do what they teach others to do. Old 
Johnny said : " Chris., I believe you are a christian ; 
I believe you are trying to do right before God and 
man." I had a spy out to talk with old Davy 
Frantz, and he went up to the old man, and asked 
him whether he knew Chris. Girl. " Yes, I know 
the old devil." The spy then said to him, " I want 
to take a job of ditching from him ; is he good for 
a contract that I would make with him, so that I 
would be sure to get my money." The old bishop 
said that he did not know, but repeated that the old 
devil was crazy. And still they asked an acknowl- 
edgement of that crazy C. Girl, and they are the 
ones that were guilty of disturbing the peace of my 
family. May God help him and his colaborers, to 
try and get out of their heathenish acts of devilment, 
in a more honorable way than to try and lie them- 
selves out of such a plain case of ungodly work as 
they have been engaged in for many years. It 
looks as though they ought to make a new start in 
the divine life, and instead of their being teachers 
of the Word of Truth, let them be hearers of the 
Word of God and become converted, and let them 



64 HUMAN DEPRA VIT Y. 

repent of their sinful deeds, and we hope the good 
Lord will be merciful to them ; but let them repent, 
and ask God for pardon. Let all good thinking 
people take warning, and provide things honestly 
before God and man, according to the Saviour's 
instructions, is my wish. 

I will give Brother Frantz another push, and 
hope we can push him into the arms of our Saviour. 
He testified that they had me before the council 
concerning a personal letter that I had written to 
the Irish agent, and declared he would report me 
before our bishop. He did so, but the official 
board would take no action on it, but got the letter 
and brought it before the council, and had it read 
before the whole congregation, to expose me in my 
personality to the lying Irish agent, though the 
official board, nor the private members, knew the 
cause of my personal letter to the agent. What 
gospel authority did they have to have that letter 
read. It looks as though it was done to injure my 
reputation by an outsider, whom they had nothing 
to do with. Old Davy testified, that at the time 
that letter was read, or before it was read, the 
official board had met and counseled concerning 
Girl's case, and they would not take action on it, 



BISHOP DAVID FRANTZ. 65 

as it was brought before the church falsely. He 
said the official board came to the conclusion that 
Girl was not in his right mind, and they would not 
bother him. My dear and well wishing reader, I 
will tell you frankly and without any fear on my 
part, that that action was as false as the very devil, 
and the records of heaven will stand against such 
false proceedings. 

Will the reader turn to the Psalmist, fifty-sixth 
chapter. I hope the old bishop will learn a lesson 
from this chapter. How can we believe such men 
that will give in such evidence. I will say with the 
Psalmist David : 

1. Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swal- 
low me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me. 

2. Mine enemies would daily swallow me up; for they 
be many that fight against me, O thou most High. 

3. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. 

4. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put 
my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. 

5. Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts 
are against me for evil. 

6. They gather themselves together, they hide them- 
selves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul. 

7. Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast 
down the people, O God. 



66 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

8. Thou tellest my wanderings; put thou my tears 
into thy bottle; are they not in thy book. 

9. When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies 
turn back: this I know; for God is for me. 

10. In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I 
praise his word. 

11. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid 
what man can do unto me. 

12. Thy vows are upon me O God: I will render 
praises unto thee. 

13. For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt 
not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk 
before God in the light of the living? 

Is it not so that God has sent them a delusion 
to believe a lie. 

I will now give the actions of the third bishop, 
whose name is David Troxil, a colaborer with the 
two former I have named. I judge he thinks he 
ought to escape being exposed to the world. I 
have warned him often that he should save himself. 
He would never answer my letters. I have often 
invited him to come to my house and have a soci- 
able talk, but he acted as though he was afraid of 
me. Perhaps he was afraid of catching the disease 
of insanity. A sister asked him, " Troxil, why 
don't you go and have a talk with Chris?" and he 



DISROP DAVID FRANTZ. 67 

answered that he did not want to. He hung in 
with the other two, and one day I met him on the 
sidewalk and said to him, " Mr. Troxil, what do 
you think about this insanity business ? " He said, 
" Well, Chris., I think you are not right in your 
mind." - 

Now the reader can see that the cousining ring 
were trained to all speak the same thing. It is an 
evident fact that they held counsel with each other 
to agree on that one thing ; — to say that I was not 
right in my mind, and I am sure that they talked 
such nonsense to their children. They looked at 
me from their windows, and also in the place of 
meetings, as though I was a monster demon roving 
over the face of the earth. 

I had written a number of letters to this old 
t>ald-headed bishop, pleading for my dear family, 
but could receive no answer to any of them, and 
when I spoke to him about them, he told me not 
to bother him any more, but I wrote some other 
letters, not only to him, but to the other bishops, 
who were his colaborers, and they would answer 
nothing. That induced me to write some very 
personal letters, and after Judge Smith granted 
them a rehearing, and set aside the judgment of 



68 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

five hundred dollars for false and malicious imprison- 
ment, they then hunted up all the personal letters 
they could get, to bring to court to be read before 
the jury, trying to prove me insane because I wrote 
such personal letters. It took up about one whole 
day to read them all, as they had a big package of 
them. It was a good thing for the jury and spec- 
tators to laugh at. The court room was filled with 
people to listen to some of the most corrupt and 
devilish evidence ever heard, perhaps, in a court 
room. Those pious looking bishops tried to be 
very friendly around among the lawyers. I saw the 
two bishops stand and counsel together how to get 
out of the mischief they had got into in trying to 
break up a loving family. As they stood at one 
end of the court room, Lawyer Buckingham walked 
up to them two rich old shepherdsand put his arms 
around their necks. I thought he was going to kiss 
them. He seemed to have a great love and respect 
for those pious-looking bishops ; but I think, if the 
truth was known, and I think it is known to all good 
thinking people, that actions speak louder than 
words. So in this case. We know that the 
lawyers are all after money as well as the preachers, 
and all of the human family like money. The 



BISHOP DAVID FRANTZ. 69 

Scripture tells us in plain words, to provide things 
honest before God and man. As the old Dutch- 
man said to his son who moved out west, as he 
spoke the last words in their separating hour, 
*' Well, son John, if you get out west you must try 
and make money. Try and make it honestly if you 
can, but if you can't make it honestly, make it any 
how." The counsel of the old Dutchman was good, 
if he had only left out the last few words. The 
author of the royal path of life says that an honest 
man 's the noblest work of God. Has he got that 
right ? Oh, yes ; a child of ten years will say that 
is right. In addition to what has been said to those 
old bishops, I will quote some passages of Scripture 
for them to meditate upon. Let all carefully read 
the following : 

I. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count 
their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of 
God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. 

4. He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about 
questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, 
strife, railings, evil surmisings, 

5. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and 
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: 
from such withdraw thyself. 



70 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Now turn with me to II Peter, ii : i, 2, 3. 

1. But there were false prophets also among the 
people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, 
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying 
the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves 
swift destruction. 

2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by 
reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 

3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned 
words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of 
a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth 
not. 

And I prayed for them as Paul did for Israel in 
his letter to the church at Rome, found in Romans, 
x : 

1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for 
Israel is, that they might be saved. 

2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of 
God, but not according to knowledge. 

3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, 
and going about to establish their own righteousness, 
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of 
God. 

4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness 
to everyone that believeth. 

These passages of Scripture are written for just 
such old hypocrites. I will give a few more pas- 






BISHOP DAVID FRANTZ. 71 

sages from God's word. Now please turn with me 
to the twenty-third chapter of Matthew : 

1. Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his 
disciples, 

2. Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' 
seat: 

4. For they bind heavy burdens and grevious to be 
borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they them- 
selves will not move them with one of their fingers. 

5. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: 
they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the 
borders of their "Hats." 

It seems to me those old bishops are only 
hearers of the word, but not doers of the divine 
law. They go through a form of worship, but do 
not have the love of Christ in their hearts, therefore 
they sit perverted and confused. 



GEORGE CRIPE 



I will now speak of George Cripe, who was one 
of the combination ring, as a fourth official, to per- 
secute me. Before he moved to the town of Cerro 
Gordo, I met him at various times and told him of 
my grievances, and he seemed to sympathize with 
me in my troubles. At that time I was separated 
from the rest of my family, but lived with my wife 
in the town of Cerro Gordo. I had to make a sale 
of my personal property, and was compelled to 
quit farming and rent my farm to a stranger, on ac- 
count of my boys and girls forsaking me, after I 
had proven myself a sane man, and showed myself 
competent to attend to all of my financial business ; 
but the bad influence of evil men and women, and 
slanderous rumors, my family were overpowered by 
the enemy. They did not one come and speak 
peace to that family ; and they all forsook their best 
friend. I hired a cook, had my youngest daughter 
to do the housework, while I took care of the sum- 



GEORGE CRIPE. 73 



mer crops. I invited my wife and children to come 
back home, but bad influences forbade them to re- 
turn. I had to do the next best thing- — made a 
sale of my personal property, rented the farm, 
traded the sale notes for a house and lot in the town 
Cerro Gordo, and moved neighbor to the old king 
of the cousining ring, Johnny Metzker. Some of 
my friends remarked that I was moving close to the 
old shepherd, and I answered that I liked to be 
close to my work, so as to get a good leverage on the 
enemy. I had counseled with my wife not to have 
anything to do with these neighbors, for they had 
an evil design in their hearts ; but my counsel was 
disregarded, and the effect of it was an evil spirit 
was raised, and caused a separation between man 
and wife. Again there was lever power, but it 
worked against me. 

I felt in need of a good counselor, and a cool- 
headed Christian man to heip to make peace in 
this confused family. I met Bishop Cripe in town, 
and asked him to bring his wife to our house and 
make us a visit, and he promised to do so. I told 
him that I was persecuted almost beyond endurance. 
He said he believed it, and I think he did ; but 
alas ! he never came to see us, but gave me a cold 



74 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

shoulder afterwards, and was impudent and saucy to 
me. I then commenced to write to him some mild 
letters, setting forth to him and others their duty as 
shepherds of the flock, and their duty as peace- 
makers. I quoted passages of Scripture, referring 
to a shepherd's duty as a peace-maker. I asked 
him to answer my letters, but never got a line from 
him, — nothing but a cold shoulder and a sour-look- 
ing face, and he became one of my worst and 
strongest enemies. It seems that he became a fool 
and a tool for his colaborers, and a strong pillar in 
my way. It made me shudder with fear to see the 
fourth big gun leveled to down me. I began to 
search the Scriptures afresh for encouragement, and 
it seemed as though I could hardly turn to any chap- 
ter in the New Testament or the Old, but what was 
full of encouragement for me, the persecuted one. 
For instance, the Psalmist, and the history of Job, 
and the Proverbs, chapter xxiv, " Be thou envious 
against evil men, neither desire to be with them. 
For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips 
talk of mischief. * * * He that deviseth to do 
evil shall be called a mischievous man." 

I will give the actions of this pious bishop, and 
let the reader be the judge whether he is a mischief 



GEORGE CRIPE. 75 



maker or not. We will show that he has taken an 
active part in helping to persecute me, not igno- 
rantly, but willingly, with a heart full of malice 
against me, and I will try to make it plain to the 
reader. I fear no contradiction on the part of this 
big gun, who has stepped into the ranks of this 
cousining ring to help hide their sinful and heathen- 
ish act of separating man and wife, parents and 
children, and the reader will see that I have reached 
out to him for help to establish peace in my con- 
fused family. This I will prove to the reader, and 
without fear of contradiction from any of those four 
bishops. The truth will and must prevail in this 
ungodly, unfair, uncivilized and unchristian case. 

This bishop was allowed to come to the Cerro 
Gordo Church and take a stand at the head of 
their council. He brought their business transac- 
tions before the church, with the three old bishops 
by his side. He is put at it to transact business for 
them, and he took the lead. I had often been to 
their council meetings, and nothing was said against 
my presence, until Cripe made a very ungentle- 
manly objection to me, even after they had com- 
menced their transactions in a case between Re- 
plogle and Dr. Sayler, an ap^ al case that I had 



76 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

after I was illegally expelled from that church. I 
walked into the meeting house, took a seat about 
the middle of the room, sat by myself and listened 
to the work they had before them for about half an 
hour, and it seemed that they were not getting 
along with the case before them as well as they 
wished on account of the absence of some witnesses 
on both sides, so they came to a deep study how to 
settle the case before them. All at once Cripe 
pointed his long finger at me, and said, " There is 
a man who must go out of this house. He says 
the foundations of this church are rotten." He 
took me by surprise, as I had not said a word 
until I was almost forced to by the bishop's per- 
sonal remarks. It appeared that this unfair and 
unprincipled matter was all planned out to give me 
a send-off out of the house. It seemed to me that 
it was planned by that clique of evil-doers, that if 
I did not go at the rough warning, they would put 
me out. A few of the officials raised to their feet 
and showed a willingness to carry or lead me out, 
and I thought it rather a rough assertion to make 
on a persecuted one. As it looked to me that they 
were making ready to take me out by force, I told 
them, and at the same time pointed to the cane 



GEORGE CRIPE. 77 



lying on the seat next to me, that they had the will 
but not the pluck to do the dirty act of boosting 
me out of doors. I kept my seat, and one of the 
unreasonable bishops proposed that one of the 
deacons should go and get an officer to take me 
out of the house. The deacon started to go, and 
went as far as the door, when the bishop told him 
to hold on and come back. He then suggested 
that they adjourn, and have it said that they had 
to postpone the council on account of C. Girl. I 
told them to go on with their council ; that I came 
there merely to hear the appeal case. I had not a 
word to say in the matter, but they were deter- 
mined, and did adjourn. Cripe named a hymn to 
sing. I walked to the end of the bench, got a book, 
turned to the named hymn, and helped him to sing 
it through. Cripe then made a long prayer, and it 
was rather personal against me. I put in a few 
amens, when he prayed for God to correct the 
ungodly and the sinner, and it seemed that aggrav- 
ated their case that was so falsely in their treacher- 
ous hearts. After prayer the meeting was dismissed, 
and I walked peaceably out of the house. Soon 
after that they put an article in the Cerro Gordo 
paper that they thought they would bring C. Girl 



78 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

before the justice for disturbing the peace of their 
meeting, but made the statement that they were a 
non-resisting people, and that they would let the 
irresponsible C. Girl go ; but shortly after sued me 
before 'Squire Middleton, of Cerro Gordo, for dis- 
turbing a religious assembly, and got old 'Squire 
Barnwell, a big, fat, and lazy Methodist, to pettifog 
their case. Well, he tried the very best he knew 
how to convict me with the untrue evidence, to get a 
fine on me, but failed, and they had the costs to 
pay, and they got beat at their own game. Bishop 
Cripe and Eli Cripe, the blacksmith, were .the 
prosecuting witnesses, and a pony purse was made 
up to pay their costs. They were noted for getting 
up pony purses, and it was proved on them that 
they had made up a purse for William H. Girl, 
when he had his father arrested on a plea of insanity. 
They went from bad to worse, with their heads full 
of malice, like a set of Judases who persecuted our 
Saviour. 

I heard some rumors, through some of my 
friends, that they had reported me before the grand 
jury at Monticello, Piatt county, for the same thing. 
The jury found a bill against me, and the constable 
came and read his warrant to me, and I had to at 



GEORGE CRIPE. 79 



once get a bondsman for my appearance at the 
next term of court. I tried to get the banker, John 
S. Coons, of Cerro Gordo, to go on a bond with 
me for $200, but he refused. I asked a few others, 
but they all refused, and I went to the constable 
and begged him to let me go to Decatur, the 
county seat of Macon county, where I lived. I 
gave him a note of $100 on my tenant for my ap- 
pearance next day to meet him at Cerro Gordo, or 
go to jail to await my trial, or get some one on the 
bond for my appearance at court the following term, 
there to answer for the deeds done in the body. I 
came to Decatur and told my wife that I had to go 
and meet Constable Bell and go to Monticello with 
him, and that perhaps I had to go to jail there and 
await my trial. She shed tears and said that she 
was going with me. I told her all right. The next 
day we took the train, met Mr. Bell at Cerro Gordo, 
and went with him to Monticello. The sheriff there 
asked me what I was going to do about the matter. 
I said I had tried to get bail, and could not, and 
that I supposed I should have to go to jail. He 
said " No, you shall not go to jail," and proposed 
that my wife should go on my bond, and we fixed 
it in that way, and came home on the returning 



80 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

train. On the day of trial, or rather at the com- 
mencement of the term of court, I took lawyers 
Bunn and Nelson to attend to the case, as they had 
plead my case before 'Squire Middleton. As soon 
as court opened they made a plea to the judge, and 
told him that they had handled the case before 
'Squire Middleton, and that Girl did not disturb a 
religious assembly, and the judge dismissed the 
suit, saying they had failed to state in what way 
Mr. Girl had disturbed them. Bishop Cripe and 
others were standing and sneaking around like a 
set of hungry prairie wolves, waiting to get a chance 
to give in bad evidence against me. They sneaked 
off as though they were shot at. One would now 
think they would stop their heathenish work, but 
they did not, and if the reader will bear with me, 
we will look at another of their evil intentions. 

I met the saint of a bishop on the public road 
going from my farm to Decatur. I hailed him. He 
had his wife along. I was alone. He had a spring 
wagon. He stopped, and the following conversa- 
tion took place. Says I to Cripe, " What business 
had you to order me out of the meeting-house ?" 
He said ; " They told me to order you out/' 

" Who told you," I asked, but he would not say. 






GEORGE CRIPE. 81 



"Did old Johnny and old Davy tell you?" but 
he would not answer. 

I told him it was them ; that they were too 
cowardly to order me out, and they got you to do 
it. He did not deny it. I then told him that if 
these bishops told him to cut off my head, he would 
have to do it, and after a few more words he jumped 
out of his wagon and bantered me to fight. I told 
him a few truths, and he went back into his convey- 
ance, but things got pretty hot again by pouring 
the truth at him, and he jumped out the second 
time, and bantered me again to fight. I told him 
I was going to whip him with the sword of the 
Spirit, and he got back into his buggy and drove 
off. I was determined to get that man out of the 
way, as he was a tool and a fool for his colaborers. 
Some time after that racket we met in Decatur on 
the platform of tjie depot. He and another man 
were walking by me to get on the cars to go to 
Cerro Gordo. As he walked by me I said, " Here 
goes the Dunkard fighting cock." He colored up 
in the face, but passed on and took a seat in the 
last car. I walked around on the side where he was 
sitting, and told him he was a tool for those evil 
men, and that he had better come out on the side 



82 HUMAN BEPRA VIT Y. 

of right and do his duty. He made no reply, but 
got up from his seat, and said he was going to hunt 
up a policeman. As he walked out of the car, I 
slapped my fist, and said, " If you want to fight, 
now is your time. Come right here, I am ready for 
you. Come on, you cowardly fighting cock." He 
walked up in front of the depot where stood a police- 
man. I hallowed to him, and said I would help him 
to find one. I went half way, and sat down on one 
of the trucks. The bishop talked to the policeman 
and pointed towards me. He knew that I was 
being roughly handled by these evil and false bish- 
ops, and made no attempt to arrest me. The cars 
being about to start he walked past me, and I said, 
"Ha! ha! the police and sheriffs are my best 
friends ; you old fighting cock, you are a cowardly 
man." I am aware that I did wrong, and wrote a 
card to the bishops acknowledging the same. 
" Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be 
called the children of God." I hope these old 
bishops will take a square look at themselves, and 
see themselves fairly. 

We will quote some Scripture for their benefit. 
Let them read I Timothy, iv-1-2. Please go with 
me to the second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalo- 
nians, chapter second : 



GEORGE CRIPE. 83 



1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto 
him, 

2. That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, 
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as 
that the day of Christ is at hand. 

3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day 
shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and 
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. 

9. Even him, whose coming is after the working of 
Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 

10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in 
them that perish; because they recived not the love of the 
truth, that they might be saved. 

11. And for this cause God shall send^them strong 
delusion, that they should believe a lie; 

12. That they all might be damned who ;believe not 
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 

17. Comfort your hearts, and establish "you in every 
good word and work. 



A. BINGAMAN. 



I will now proceed to give the evidence and 
conduct of the young preacher, A. Bingaman. He 
goes by the name of the devil's hired hand. He is 
not the Adam that was put into the Garden of 
Eden with Eve to obey God's commandment, not 
to touch the forbidden fruit. We think he dare not 
tell his wife that she has given him of the fruit, and 
did eat thereof. We have reason to think that his 
wife is in darkness concerning her husband's many 
false and treacherous evil doings to help throw dis- 
cord in a once loving family. He was very active 
in taking pains to confuse my family, and he played 
an active part in being obedient to the elder breth- 
ren. I saw he was stimulated by the elders to take 
their counsel and obey their instructions. The 
scriptures say the younger shall serve the elders, 
but only in what is godly and right ; but we will 
show the reader that that young preacher was 






A. BINGAMAN. 85 



rightly named by me, when I called him the devils' 
hired hand. We will prove to the reader that our 
assertions were true. He was willing to go with 
two of the old bishops, Johnny and Davy, as the 
third person to settle a difficulty between two mem- 
bers of the church, according to Matthew, 18th 
chapter, 1 6th verse: 

" But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one 
or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every word may be established." 

The reader will see that I was the complainant, 
and that I was the one that was to take one or two 
with me, according to the Saviour's instructions, 
but the two old bishops stepped out of their way to 
bring the devils' hired hand along. He was obedi- 
ent to the bishops' wishes, and went with them, 
and right there they all three violated God's law, 
not ignorantly, but willfully, and for a vicious pur- 
pose. They appeared before me, and introduced 
the third person that they thought they would 
bring along. I asked them what gospel authority 
they had, and referred them to the 18th chapter of 
Matthew, to the Saviour's instructions. I sent him 
away in a hurry, and gave the two elders a sharp 
reproof for their illegal proceedings and strange 



86 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

conduct. The young preacher was ever ready to 
obey those old bishops, right or wrong. He was 
the man to keep my family under excitement, to 
get up rumors of a slanderous character against me. 
My oldest son, with a heart full of malice, was 
urged on by him, C. Funk and others, When I 
was arrested the first time, that young preacher 
made himself very prominent as a counselor in my 
family, and especially with the oldest son, urging 
him on to make the arrest, but waited to be ex- 
cused from being a witness in the case, which cre- 
ated some hard feelings between the conspirator 
and my son, who said that Bingaman had to go to 
court and testify. The suit was withdrawn after I 
came back from Iowa, by persuasion from myself 
and some of the good citizens. When Bingaman 
found out that the suit was to be withdrawn, he 
made it his business to go to the boy and beg of 
him not to withdraw the suit. I reasoned with the 
boy, and told him that I would prove myself a sane 
man, and in spite of all they could do, the suit was 
withdrawn ; but the malice in those men and 
women still existed and the second arrest was made 
and I was lodged in jail. Then Satan had a chance 
to come in with his false evidence, and now for the 



A. BINGAMAN. • 87 



devils' hired hand's evidence to prove me an insane 
man. 

As he was put on the stand, he seemed to be 
glad that his turn came to give in his evidence. He 
was asked by Lawyer Bunn what his age was and 
where he lived, and then interrogated concerning 
Girl's sanity, whether he believed he was insane or 
not. He was very prompt and active, and seemed 
as though he was real proud in making answers to 
the questions. The lawyer gave him plenty of 
string to hang himself with, which he did in great 
shape. The lawyer said : " Mr. Bingaman, what 
made you think that Mr. Girl was insane?" 

" Well, he wro.te all over the neighborhood and 
got it in an uproar, and he called the preachers 
hypocrites and devils' hired hands." 

Lawyer — "How far do you live from Mr. 
Girl's farm?" 

Ans. — "About one mile." 

Ques. — " Was you afraid of Mr. Girl ? " 

Ans. — "Yes, sir; I didn't go to my barn after 
night for fourteen weeks, on account of him, with 
the exception of one night. I had a sick horse, and 
I had to go out." 

Ques. — "Mr. Bingaman, how did you manage 
that night?" 



88 HUM AW DEPRAVITY. 

Ans. — " I took a body guard with me." 
He did not say what that was, whether men or 
a pistol, or what. Soon after that he had my 
brother come to testify against me. He brought 
him right before my house to try and confuse my 
family. As I came out of the field I saw them both 
standing there, and I had to order them away. 
This goes to prove that he was not afraid of me at 
all, and that he swore to a lie. He also said that 
Girl got so ornery that they had to expel him from 
the church — and that was a lie. He also said that 
he (Girl) had tried to correct those old bishops, that 
may be true, but they would not be corrected, to 
the sorrow of all good christian people v that love the 
Lord. If Bingaman ever was afraid of me, it was 
his own guilty conscience that made him afraid. It 
looks as though such men have no conscience. If 
they had anything like a good conscience they 
could not perform such heathenish and hellish per- 
secution, willfully and maliciously, with their hearts 
full of malice, and still come to court and swear 
they had no malice against me. All good thinking 
people know better, especially those who heard 
their testimony. After I was acquitted by an 
honorable jury, some of the jury said that " Mr. Girl 



A. BIN Gf AM AN. 89 



has got more sense than any that appeared against 
him," when this young impudent deviPs hired hand 
remarked " that Girl has plenty of money, and he 
bribed the jury ; " and he said to a spy that "if they 
would give him two hundred dollars he would put 
Girl where the dogs would not bite him." Would 
it be possible that such a combined set of fools 
would be able to send a sane man to an insane 
asylum. I have said to them that I would use their 
meeting house for an insane asylum for that cousin- 
ing ring, and that I would be their superintendent 
and do their preaching for them. 

I will have something more to say about the 
young deacon, Brother William Bingaman, as he 
has taken so active a part in screening those evil 
doers from the effects of their mischief. 

He told me that he saw letters that were written 
to some of those old bishops that were not fit to be 
seen or read, that had no name signed to them. I 
asked him if he saw the letters, and he said he did, 
and read them, but would not tell me who they 
were directed to, but he kept telling me, you know. 
I told him he wrote those letters to the bishops, and 
that I signed my name to the letters I wrote. I 
tried hard to get him to say who the letters were 



90 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

directed to, but he would not tell, and finally I told 
him, before his wife, that I believed his brother had 
written them, and also believed that he had a hand 
in the work, because it would compare well with 
with their other hellish deeds, and the evil thoughts 
in their treacherous hearts. 

If he was innocent about those letters, why 
could he not answer my fair questions. Actions 
speak louder than words. We will give some more 
of his actions. 

He was brought on the witness stand against 
me, and there testified that I told him that I was 
sent by God to correct those Dunkards. I told him 
in the presence of his wife that he had sworn to a. 
lie, and if a man lies to injure me, I will call him a 
liar if he is as big as an oak tree. 

When on the witness stand he got very import- 
ant and saucy. We thought for a while that he 
was going to run away with the judge, jury and 
lawyers, but they gave him plenty of rope to hang 
himself, and his evidence hung him in close connec- 
tion with that cousining ring. 

We suppose that his wife does not know that 
her husband has given in such unfair evidence 
against me. We have reason to believe that she is 



A. BINGAMAN. 91 



a zealous christian woman. I had a good many 
conversations with her and him, and we have talked 
about the evil of bad ruling in the church, and we 
talked about the evil influence of the cousining 
ring, and bad proceedings in the church, and always 
agreed on the evil we could see in the unfair ruling, 
when, all at once, W. Bingaman turned his coat. 
He would still try to deceive me in meeting me 
in a friendly way, declaring that he had nothing 
against me. I was determined to make him show 
his colors as I came with him from town, and I 
pressed him, when he flew off the handle and called 
me a liar. He got over the fence first, and then 
abused me. I told him I had to press him to make 
him show his colors ; told him that he was a snake 
in the grass, and after that he was willing to openly 
stand against me, and even to testify to the untruth. 
His wife, I think, does not know of his unchristian 
principles, for if she did, she would sharply reprove 
him for such J ungodly conduct ; but as we know 
that this christian religion is a personal matter, she 
will not have to answer for his sinfulness. We 
read, " Let no man deceive you with vain words, 
for because of these things cometh the wrath of 
God upon the children of disobedience. " 



92 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Please turn to Ephesians, chapter v, 15th, 16th, 
and 17th verses, and Christ will give the light. 

"See, then that ye walk circumspectly, not as 
fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the 
days are evil." May God help those evil doers 
that have conspired together to do evil. May they 
take the admonitions of the 1 7th verse of the above- 
named chapter: " Wherefore be ye not unwise, but 
understanding what the will of the Lord is." 



JOHN PHILLIPS AND BROTHER. 



I wish now to expose the weakness of human 
nature of man, and show how we may be influenced 
on the side of wrong. I will now speak of two of 
my neighbors, John Phillips and wife and Hiram 
Phillips. John Phillips and wife belong to the 
Dunkards, and we have been neighboring together 
for many years. I have laid my grievances before 
them, explained to them all the unfair dealings of 
the official board of the church — how they have 
gulled me with false actions taken in that cousining 



JOHN PHILLIPS AND BROTHER. 93 

ring — and they seemed to sympathize with me, 
and seemed to enjoy my reasonings on moral and 
Christian principles. Many a time in the long win- 
ter nights have we sat together and talked about 
the evil of the way in which the churches were 
ruled by a few individuals, and appeared to enjoy 
my company. They most always gave me credit 
for advocating the right side of moral and Chris- 
tian principles up to the time of the appeal in the 
insanity case. I was overpowered by the false evi- 
dence of the official board of the church and others, 
and some, even from other churches, were induced 
to bring in false evidence in every possible way in 
order to beat me, and throw the costs on the perse- 
cuted one. They succeeded in their hellish under- 
taking, and I had to double mortgage my farm and 
other property in order to meet those unjust court 
expenses. I have paid all those unjust debts with 
a strong resolution. I have never allowed any 
sheriffs sale with the exception of a part of one 
hundred and seventy dollars that I failed to meet. 
Eighty acres of land were sold to secure that 
amount of costs, which I expect to redeem before 
long. 

The suit was given against me by the false evi- 



94 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

dence, with a treacherous lawyer at the head of 
whole mischief, in order to make a little money out 
of the heathenish affair. Both of the Phillips* evi- 
dence was good and fair in my favor in the insanity 
case. They testified that they had conversed with 
me on various subjects at different times and places ; 
that I had managed my farm as well as the ordinary 
farmers in that vicinity, and their testimony was all 
in my favor ; but as soon as I got beat at court 
they turned their coats and declared that I was per- 
secuting those old preachers. They thought that 
I was now overpowered, and that I must now go 
down to poverty and despair; that I had many 
enemies, and they wished to stand on the winning 
side. They were now willing to stand up with my 
enemies, and even helped, with their influence and 
arguments, to throw more grief on me. They said 
I slandered and abused those pious-looking bishops, 
and one day I was tackled by Mr. John Phillips on 
scriptural points. We were talking on various sub- 
jects, good and evil, and about the division in the 
Dunkard church. At that time a dividing element 
had sprung up in the church, some pulling off from 
the main church. Their excuse was bad ruling. I 
had many arguments with them on the subject of 



JOHN PHILLIPS AND BROTHER. 95 

the evil of a separation in the church. Those who 
called themselves " old orderists," wanted to pull off 
from the main church. I told them that, united we 
stand, divided we will fall, but they would pull off, 
and it is now a separated church. Since I was 
expelled illegally from the church the old orderists 
have invited me to go with them. Says I, " What, 
to jump out of the frying pan into the fire ? You 
are drones; you won't w©rk, but pull off and find 
fault ; we will call them backsliders and backbiters." 
Mrs. John Phillips knew my opinion about old 
orderism, but in an argument with her she said, in 
a sneering and insulting tone, "Well, Mr. Chris., 
you had better go and join the ' old orderists/ ' 
It was an important assertion. She said it 
to aggravate me. I had asked that woman often 
to go and speak peace to my confused family, 
but she took her own way for it, and said she pitied 
William Girl the most of any of the family. I made 
it plain to both of them that the boy was persuaded 
against his better judgment by such evil men as A. 
Bingaman, D. Funk, and others. I, at one time, 
had confidence in John Phillips that he would stand 
by the persecuted one. I told him that I had a 
plan to make that boy come out with his secrets. 



96 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

He wanted to know what my plans were. I told 
him to mob the boy and make him tell the secrets 
he held for such devilish mean folks. John turned 
against me, and went out and told the boy, and I 
was soon arrested again. Thus, instead of trying 
to make peace in the family, he was willing to take 
part with the evil man and woman. Thus, we can 
see what bad influences will do. It would have 
been a blessing for the boy if he had been mobbed, 
and made to tell the secrets he was induced to 
withhold against his father with a heart full of mal- 
ice. It does not seem possible that a boy that was 
well raised could be made to try and break his 
father up against his own interest. I think Phillips 
put him up to arrest his father the second time. 
Thus, instead of making peace, they created strife 
and confusion. The Scriptures say, " Blessed are 
the peace makers, for they shall be called the chil- 
dren of God." 

Now, my kind Christian-professing people, you 
had better turn your attention heavenward and put 
your trust in God, and not in man, as you have in 
time past, for man is a weaker vessel than your 
Supreme Maker. Man is liable to fade like the 



FREDERICK BUCKINGHAM AND WIFE. 97 

summer rose before the autumn breeze, and then 
all your hopes and fond aspirations are gone for- 
ever, but God will never fail you. 



FREDERICK BUCKINGHAM AND 

WIFE. 



It is my aim to expose all who have been in- 
duced by bad counsel to go into court and testify 
that they would not believe me under oath ; but I 
will make some allowance for ignorance in the case 
of Frederick Buckingham and his family, whom I 
have neighbored with for many years. They moved 
from Ohio to Illinois, and they were very poor and 
much dependent on their neighbors in the way of 
farming implements. They would come and bor- 
row plows, drags, wagons, and all tools that were 
used on the farm. They would also borrow flour, 
and flour sacks to go to mill with. I never refused 
to loan them any article, and they appreciated their 
neighbors so long as they were poor and in limited 
circumstances ; but with his gang of boys, and their 



98 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

industry, it was not many years before they became 
well-to-do farmers, and get into good circumstances 
financially. They were a kind of self-supporting 
family. They would not pay out any money for re- 
pairs, as they were jacks of all trades and masters 
of none, and slashed into business with a determina- 
tion to become wealthy. They even tried to do 
their own doctoring. The old lady was doctor for 
the whole family, and in many little ailments, such 
as breaking up colds, she would roll the children in 
a wet blanket, give them a little sage, or some other 
garden tea, and perhaps, in that way, saved many 
little doctor bills ; so we can see there was some 
economy used in that family. The old lady had 
thus doctored her own family for many years, but 
on one occasion she failed. She had a son, a strip 
of a boy, who was lingering all one fall, and finally 
he got bed-fast. She still tried her skill with dif- 
ferent home remedies to cure him, but he was get- 
ting worse, so one day I was called in to look at 
him, and they wanted my opinion of the illness. I 
told them the boy had typhoid fever and advised 
them to send for a doctor at once. They did so. 
Dr. Brandon was called and he pronounced it a dan- 
gerous case of typhoid fever. They lived in a small 






FREDERICK BUCKINGHAM AND WIFE. 99 

house, had a large family, slept two and three in a 
bed, and almost every one of them caught the fever 
and the house seemed like a hospital. The doctor 
finally said they could not get well all crammed up 
in a little house. Myself and wife were their main 
stay, as nurses, while they were in that condition. 
We went and sat up with them, night after night, 
taking care of half a dozen or more sick with the 
dangerous fever. 

It was a cold winter and they got out of fuel. I 
sent my team along with some others to the timber 
to get wood. Their condition got worse and worse. 
I sent word to the Dunkard bishop that the family 
were in distress, and that as we had a family of 
small children ourselves, we could not spend^all of 
our time with the sick ones. The bishop came and 
paid them some attention. They counseled with 
the doctor, and he advised that the family should 
be separated or they would die. They were placed 
with different neighbors and cared for. I took two 
of the boys to my house ; they were the only two 
that were not down sick, although they were com- 
plaining, and would soon have been down if they 
had not been removed from the old house. A day 
was appointed by the neighbors to go to the house 



100 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

and do their butchering and have a general clean- 
ing up of the residence. Some of the Dunkards 
met there, cleaned it up, and gave it a thorough 
whitewashing. 

I did not belong to the church at that time. Old 
David Frantz came to me, laid his hand on my 
shoulder, and said " Chris., we know you folks have 
done a good deal for the sick ones," and added, 
with a smile on his face, "the horse that is willing 
to pull must always pull the heaviest load. We 
look to you to care for these folks' meat. You have 
got a cellar, and you can take their meat and salt 
it." I told them that I would do it, and in the 
evening I ordered my team, and took the meat and 
salted it. 

It had a happy effect to move that family out. 
They soon all got well under the doctor's care and 
nursing, and in three or four weeks they were all 
well enough to move back on their farm, and into a 
whitewashed and garnished house, and the reunited 
family appeared to be very happy. 

In the following spring while I was in the field 
adjoining Buckingham's farm, plowing, old Freddie 
came to me, and speaking of their sickness, and the 
good attention and kindness that myself and wife 



FREDERICK BUCKINGHAM AND WIFE. 101 

had displayed in their affliction, asked my charge 
for it. I said I made no charges, as I thought it 
was our duty to help our neighbors in times of sick- 
ness and distress. Well, he said he was very 
thankful to us, and that he wanted to be as good a 
neighbor as he knew how. I told him that was all 
right ; that we might need help at some time, as 
we were all liable to be sick. It so happened that 
my wife was very sick for several months. She was 
not expected to live ; the doctor had poor hopes of 
her. I had to stay with her night and day for six 
long weeks, and we were getting short of fuel. My 
hired hand did not know the way to our timber, so 
we sent a boy over to Buckingham's for one of them 
to go with their team with my man, and bring us a 
load of wood. The answer came to me, " We 
can't ; we are going to haul brick for a foundation 
under our house." It seemed that he had forgotten 
the promise he made in the field, to be as "good a 
neighbor as he knew how." Afterwards, my wife 
induced me to go down to Buckingham and get his 
spring wagon to go to town in, as she was not well, 
and thought a spring wagon would be easier to 
ride in. They refused it, sending word that they 
did not want to loan it. I once went to borrow a 



102 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



hand press to make a little cider to drink. I asked 
the old lady for it, and she said they only got it for 
themselves, and did not like to loan it. I let loose 
on her, and said, " Mrs, Buckingham, you have 
forgotten that you was poor years ago. You even 
could not help yourselves, but borrowed pretty 
nearly all our farming tools and plows, and even 
our flour sacks to go to mill with, and now you have 
got independent, that you can get things for your- 
selves, but dont't want to loan them." I then 
walked off. Some folks can't stand financial pros- 
perity. It makes fools of them. Buckingham and 
his whole family became tools for a set of hypo- 
crites, became worshippers of liars, and lied to 
please their bishops. They came into court and 
swore to lies to please their leaders. 

Frederick Buckingham was induced, either by 
the persuasion of these bishops, or by the devil's 
hired hand, or directly by the devil himself, to go 
into court and swear that he would not believe me 
under oath. I would, right here, ask all candid, 
good and moral citizens, whether such men could 
be trusted under oath. I would not, and could not, 
believe them. As old Bishop Wagner said, " He 
that has lied once will lie again, if he is pushed a 



FREDERICK BUCKINGHAM AND WIFE. 103 

little." But a number of them came to court and 
swore to what they knew was a lie, and it was done 
in a voluntary manner, without compulsion and with 
malice. We think there was a strong persuasion 
by the spirit of the devil, for we can read in the 
Divine Word of God, that He will send such evil 
men and women a delusion, that the may believe a 
lie and be damned. There seems to be a vast dif- 
ference between lying and swearing to a lie. 
They are both sinful acts, but swearing to a lie is 
violating the laws of our country as well as the laws 
of God, and is a penitentiary act, if the laws of our 
States were enforced, but they seem to be very 
much neglected as well as the many church rules 
and laws. 

Buckingham swore on the witness stand that 
my boys did all the work on the farm, also that the 
farm was grown up in weeds, which was a lie ; all 
of the farmers knowing that my farm was cleaner 
of weeds than any farm in that section of country. 

Now although those evil men and women have 
been trying to down me, they have received many 
favors from me as a neighbor ; and because I have 
seen an abominable evil in the official board of the 
church, and contended for the right to prevail, it 



104 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

seemed that all the impudent, ignorant, devilish 
people, and devilish preachers hissed at me to ag- 
gravate me. It seemed as though the guns of hell 
were turned loose on a persecuted man, who was 
only fighting on the side of right, morally and 
religiously. It has not been a small affair for one 
man to stand and fight a legion of devils, and there 
are but few, perhaps, who can comprehend my suffer- 
ings. I suffered worse than many deaths, but many 
stood by and made light of this wonderful persecu- 
tion. It was a feast for some of the hard-hearted 
lawyers, even some preachers made light of it, in- 
stead of coming to my aid. They appeared to 
want to see whether this Christian Girl could stand 
as much persecution as did our Saviour. One 
preacher even said, "Mr. Girl, you must stand it 
all if needs be; be nailed to the cross." I said: 
' Mr. Chew, do you suppose you could stand all 
that, to be nailed up to the cross?" and he said 
yes, he knew he could if he had to, but he would 
not be nailed up without murmuring. I told him 
not to tell that around too much, or they would take 
him for an insane man. Lawyer Buckingham could 
have made a better case of that preacher's talk 
than what he made out of the Girl case. Well 
might we say with the poet : 



FREDERICK BUCKINGHAM AND WIFE. 105 

" Be firm, be bold, be strong, be true, 
And dare to stand alone." 

Please turn to Ephesians, chapter six, tenth 
and thirteenth verses : 

" Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in 
the power of his neighbor." 

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, 
that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and hav- 
ing done all, to stand." 

I shall try and expose all that had the impu- 
dence to come to court, and take the oath to tell 
the truth, and nothing but the truth. If the sheriff 
had put the obligation to all those who swore they 
would not believe me under oath, as follows : " You 
do solemnly swear to a lie in the case now pending 
in this court against Christian Girl, to lies, and 
nothing but lies, so may the devil help you," then 
they would not have perjured themselves. 



THE SISTERS. 



I will now have to expose some of the good 
sisters. We will call them good sisters, for we 
know that they have some very good qualities about 
them as neighbors, and in former years have been 
friendly and even neighborly to this unlucky family, 
but the poor mortal souls were overpowered by the 
stronger sex to give wrong counsel. It was proven 
at court that even some of those neighbor women 
had met at secret crossroads, and at each others* 
houses to hold their counsels. They were really 
influenced to take an active part in helping to con- 
fuse this once loving family, that they were once 
very social with, but those women became tools for 
the men that stood at the head of all this trouble, 
and they had timely warning not to listen to such 
devils as A. Bingaman, C. Funk and others, that 
had their hearts full of malice against me, but they 
were ready to be fed with the untruths, and some 
of them were influenced by those pious-looking 



THE SISTERS. 107 



devils to come to court and testify against me. I 
will say that none of those old pious bishops, or 
any of the devil's hired hands were ever instructed 
to go and speak peace to that confused wife and 
family, but on the contrary, they tried to keep them 
in a confused state of mind. I remember when I 
came home from Iowa, and found my wife in an 
unsettled state of mind, while I was explaining to 
the family what a time I had had with my crazy 
brother and his wife, who had been sent many 
untruths which made them obstinate towards me, 
my wife disappeared unnoticed. I asked my chil- 
dren where she was, and they would not tell. I 
spoke to my eldest son and he would not say where 
she went to. I told them to go and see where she 
had gone to, but they would not. So I started for 
Cripe's, the nearest neighbor. It was bed-time, 
and I called them up. Mrs. Cripe responded, and 
I asked if my wife was there, and she said yes, she 
had just gone to bed. I told her I wanted her to 
come and go home with me ; that I would take care 
of her. She said, " No, Chris., you just go home." 
I told her that I did not want my wife to be under 
her influence, for she would not give her such 
counsel as she ought to have, and I didn't want her 



108 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

under her control ; but she stuck her head out of 
the Window and babbled with me and said, "you 
just go home and leave here." I told her she was 
not going to dictate to me nor to my wife, and that 
I would not go home until my wife went with me, 
but she stood and jawed with me until she got so 
mad that she fell into a fit. I said that I wanted to 
see my wife, and she must come home with me, or 
I would stay there. " You tell her to come down 
and go home with me, or permit me to come up 
and stay with her until morning, when I will take 
her home." She finally told me to come up, and 
when I got up she had a fit and got very sick. I 
asked my wife to get up and wait on her. My wife 
went and made her some tea of some kind, and 
worked with her about an hour and a half, rubbing 
her down to steady her excited nerves, and finally 
we go the angry woman quieted down and she 
dropped asleep. 

That is way with some people. If they cannot 
have their own way, right or wrong, they go off 
into conniption fits. She was accustomed to hav- 
ing things her own way, as she had a very easy-go- 
ing husband. He was sickly and she did about 
all the bossing there was done around the premises. 



THE SISTERS. 109 



She had rather a bitter feeling against me ever 
since, and she came to court and testified to things 
she had not ought to, but she did it with a revenge- 
ful feeling, even winking to one of her own sex in 
order to attract her attention to notice how smart 
she could answer the lawyer's questions. The law- 
yer asked her " what more did Mr. Girl do to ag- 
gravate you after he came to your house to look 
after his wife?" She said, " he would pass me 
sometimes and call me smarty." 

Good sister, I hope she will get her full share of 
admonition in this history, as it is not intended to 
destroy or tear down, but to build up. Come, 
brethren and sisters, let us look upwards. Heaven 
is above us, and hell below us ; but I will show no 
partiality. 

Mrs. Frederick Buckingham seems to be an in- 
dustrious woman. She is a little like myself in 
some respects — she likes to gad about over the 
neighborhood and carry news She likes to go 
somewhere where she can get a good dinner, tell 
news, complain about some of her neighbors and 
talk about the church members, brag about her 
chickens and pea-fowls, and her boy and girls, and 
boast of her financial prosperity. She also became 



110 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

a very active worker in trying to send me to the in- 
sane asylum. She made a remark like this : "What 
in the world will the people do now they have 
cleared Mr. Girl. A sane man, and he has come 
home to his family." She was maintaining that I 
was not safe to run at large. The poor old soul is 
not able to judge or govern her own family, for she 
had to let them out one winter for other people to 
take care of. I suppose she never saw an insane 
women only when she would look in the mirror. 
Ignorance, in its worst form, is worse than insanity, 
in my way of thinking. 

When my wife and I separated I went to church 
with the hope of getting a chance to talk with her. 
After the meeting, Mrs. Wagner said, "There is 
Chris., if I was you I would go right by him, and I 
would not talk with him." She did as she was bid 
by this good old deacon's wife. How is that for 
counsel for a deacon's wife to give ? I wonder if she 
can read the Word of God, or hear it read, where it 
says, " Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall 
be called the children of God." She did all she 
could to separate man and wife, children and parents. 
The devil gets all such people unless they repent 
from their evil ways. "What God hath joined to- 



TEE SISTERS. Ill 



gether, let no man put asunder." Mrs. Wagner 
had better read I Corinthians : " The wife is bound 
by the law as long as her husband liveth ; but if 
her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married 
to whom she will; only in the Lord." I make due 
allowance for ignorance. The law knows no ignor- 
ance, and we can read the laws of God so plainly 
that "a wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err 
therein." We will now drop the curtain on that 
sister. 

I have something to say about Mrs. Daniel 
Wagner, the old-order deacon's wife. She had a 
hand in giving counsel to my wife and children, and 
helped to separate man and wife. On one occasion 
I was off to Ohio with my youngest son, and when 
I came back wanted to talk and reason with my 
wife. I went on Sunday to the old-order meeting, 
and I learned, by experience, that when you get 
into trouble with ignorant people, who are also full 
of self-righteousness and self-praise, you might just 
as well try to reason with a Japanese god, that is 
carved out of wood or made out of clay. As the 
Rev. Sam Jones said in his lecture at Decatur, 111., 
"Worship man! what is man? made out of dirt." 
Well, it is said in the Word of God that man is 



112 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

made out of the dust of the earth. It seems to me 
that some of us are made of very inferior dirt, or 
muck. Well, it makes no difference what kind of 
dirt we are made of, we are assured that God has 
placed man and woman on this earth for a noble 
purpose, and, my dear fellow men, the question 
comes home to each and every one of us, are we 
filling our stations in life as one should, in order to 
be a light in the world. Suppose we, with all our 
Christian liberties and good literature and Christian 
training, should live out our Christian professions, 
would not that be better than to have the pulpits 
lined with skeptics as teachers. I say away with 
the whole of them to where they belong, to the 
devil's kingdom. 

If you cannot get the skeptical preacher out by 
fair means, then use muscular power and kick them 
out of the pulpits, run them out of the country, or 
build a house for them where they may be kept 
until they repent of their sin of mocking their 
Creator, and destroying all the good that still 
exists in some creeds as they are called. Away 
with sectarianism. It is the devil's work. We will 
now give a word of admonition, through the Word 
of Truth, to this pious sister, hoping she may be 



THE SISTERS. 113 



benefitted by the instruction of our Saviour. A hint 
to the wise is sufficient. We would suggest I 
Peter, chap. iii. We hope the sister will ponder 
on this chapter. It will do her more good than 
running over the neighborhood speaking about 
things she does not understand : that is to say, 
" What will the people do now that a sensible jury 
has cleared Mr. Girl, a sane man, and pronounced 
him just a little too smart for his antagonist ? How 
can we, as neighbors, have this christian man 
among us? Away with him. Crucify him." An- 
other one will say, what evil has he done ? I hope 
they will try and examine themselves, and see how 
they stand with their God. 

We will name out another sister who was a 
close neighbor to me. It is Catherine Eshelman. 
She seems to be a sensible woman, but was carried 
away by bad influences by putting too much trust 
in man and not enough in God, and was made to 
take an active part in confusing my family, perhaps 
not willfully, but ignorantly. She put a wonderful 
trust in what old Johnny Metzker would say and 
do, and the boy preacher and C. Funk were her 
counselors, and it seems she was ever ready to 
obey their dictates and commands in the conspiracy. 



114 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

She was in their clique. They used her as a tele- 
phone to convey their plans from my family to the 
evil party, who were planning how to defeat a chris- 
tian man, and send him off to Jacksonville Asylum. 
Is that a proper place to send christians ? Well, 
this pious-looking woman was almost as much con- 
fused as my family. She came to our house in 
former years to borrow such things as were needed 
in the household, but in late years she came to 
borrow trouble, and she got a good supply of it — 
enough to last her a lifetime. Her evidence was 
not much better than the boy preacher's. She was 
under his influence. They were all trained to 
speak the same thing. She was willing to go along 
with the devil's hired hand to Decatur, before 
Lawyer Buckingham, a very shrewd lawyer in the 
way of obtaining money. They laid the devilment 
before the lawyer by false representations against 
me. He told them that Mr. Girl was the one who 
ought to bring the complaint. They came home, 
and God, and themselves, perhaps, only knew any- 
thing about their plans of devilment. After they 
got home Mrs. Eshelman was sent to Mrs. Girl and 
made her believe that Buckingham said that she 
must go and enter complaint against her husband. 



THE SISTERS. 115 



She said, no, she would not go, but Mrs. Eshelman 
coaxed a while, and finally made her believe that 
she must go, and they took her in the next day, and 
she was asked some improper questions, and she 
got mad and walked away from those devils ; but 
they made up enough to make out a case of insanity, 
as they thought, before Judge Greer. I will now 
give some of Mrs. Eshelman's testimony on the 
witness stand : 

Lawyer — "How long have you been acquainted 
with Mr. Girl, and what kind of a neighbor did he 
used to be?" 

Answer — " He was a good, kind neighbor." 

Lawyer — " Ah ! He was a good, kind neighbor 
until your folks began to tamper with his family, 
and took secret counsel against him, and wanted to 
send him off to Jacksonville ; then he got saucy ?" 

Ans. — " Yes." 

Ques. — " Well, Mrs. Eshelman, did you think 
Mr. Girl was insane ?" 

Ans. — "I could not just say he was crazy, but 
he was very much bothered in his mind." 

Quss. — " Did he come to your house often ?" 

Ans. — " Yes." 

Ques. — " What did he want at your house ?" 



116 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Ans. — " Oh, he wanted me to go and talk 
peace to his family. He said that there were a set 
of devils confusing his family." 

Ques. — " Did you go to his house ?" 

Ans. — " Yes, I did, but he forbade me to come 
there, and said he would throw water on me if I did 
not stay away." 

I found out that she was giving bad counsel to 
my family, which was the reason I objected to her 
coming. 

Mrs. Eshelman is a woman that talks very 
much, and Mrs. Girl said that Mrs. E. told her 
some things which Mrs. E. denied, and they both 
got very angry at each other. I was glad at that 
for they were too intimate with each other. Mrs. 
Girl got so that she thought more of her than she 
did of her husband, because Mrs. Eshelman would 
convey the devils' messages to Mrs. Girl and the 
children. She became the devils' telephone. Poor 
old soul. Her brother, George, told me that he 
had many arguments with her, and told her that 
she would get herself into trouble. He told her 
that Mr. Girl was not insane, and that he was com- 
petent to manage his farm, and he could make more 
money in dealing and hauling stock than all his 



THE SISTERS. 117 



boys, but yet she thought he ought to go to Jack- 
sonville. He told me she would take no heed to 
his good counsel, but she took the counsel of those 
pious devils, such as the devils' hired hand, A. 
Bingaman, and the young outlaw, C. Funk. He 
that will not hear must feel. She was too lippy ; 
she would not give me a chance to explain to her 
the mystery in the case. In order to be understood 
by her, I commenced writing to her, and she would 
send the letters back to me without answer to my 
questions. I will insert my letters on another page 
so that the readers can see for themselves what the 
object was in writing to her — to open her under- 
standing, so that she might not be exposed with 
the hypocrites. Three of her inexperienced boys 
were induced to go to the court and testify that 
they would not believe me under oath, we think 
mainly through the influence of C. Funk. 

We hope that this old lady has learned a lesson 
that she will never forget as long as she lives. 



T. QUICKELL. 



Here is a man I have had dealings with on sev- 
eral occasions, and in various ways. His name is 
Tobias Quickell, a brother to the George Quickell 
I have spoken of in a foregoing chapter, as having 
a church trial with him in York county, Pennsylva- 
nia. They are called very close dealers. There 
is a vast difference between a close dealer and a 
dishonest man. The Scripture says that we shall 
provide things honestly before God and our fellow- 
men, — we suppose it includes women as well as 
men. This Tobias Quickell is a pious-looking pro- 
fessor of Christianity, but is not strictly honest. I 
sold him a farm of eighty acres at his own offer, for 
a trifle over four hundred dollars. The tax was not 
paid at that time for the past year, but was about 
due. There was some little quibble between us as 
to who should pay the tax, but I finally agreed to 
pay it. After that an assessment was made for the 
following years, and in writing up the bond for a 



T. QTIICKELL. 119 



deed, Quickell, being a good scholar, formerly a 
school-teacher, managed to have that bond drawn 
up in such a shape that it made me liable to pay- 
both the taxes, the one that was due and also the 
assessment to follow the next year, and he was will- 
ing to hold me to such unfair dealing, but I gave 
him to understand that he would get into trouble 
over such crooked ways. It was a very dishonest 
act, for the assessment was not in dispute at all at 
the time the sale was made, only the tax due at 
the time of sale. These are rather rough things 
for a pious professor to do, and I suppose because 
I had reproved him for his dishonest dealing, he 
became angry at me, and went right over into that 
clique of evil men, and was willing to testify that 
that he would not believe C. Girl under oath. This 
pious-looking professor took a very active part in 
the conspiracy against me. 

I have had dealings with this man at various 
times ; borrowed money many times ; paid him as 
high as twelve per cent., and he always got his 
money at the end of the time named. What would 
a sane man expect from such a miser? He testi- 
fied that he believed I was insane, and showed in 
many ways that his heart was full of malice. Thus 



120 HUMAN BEPRA VIT Y. 

one after another was induced to help to persecute 
me, and to confuse a once loving family. Can any 
sound-minded man support such hellish acts? The 
very devil is the author of this confusion and dis- 
turbance, and the editors are ready and willing to 
support such hellish deeds by publishing articles for 
the very author of lies, who comes in a sneaking 
way to establish his going by proclaiming to the 
public, as he says, a friendly offer. He says: "I 
am now past eighty years old, and for more than 
fifty years have been preaching the gospel of Jesus, 
and I am just as much interested in building 
churches, saving sinners and edifying saints as ever 
before." That sounds well for an old soldier of the 
cross, as he is termed, over eighty years old, who 
has made threats like this: " Sister Girl, you tell 
Chris, if he don't watch out he must go to Jackson- 
ville. Tell him, but don't tell on me." Can the 
reader see any devilment in that pious-looking 
veteran? He says farther: "I felt like making a 
friendly offer. It is this : I still have a little money 
left, which I propose to give to poor churches to 
help them build. In giving I want it to do all the 
good possible. I desire it to serve a double pur- 
pose; first, to stimulate those who use tobacco to 



T. QUICKELL. 121 



do well by quitting its use, and second, by helping 
to build meeting houses for those poor congrega- 
tions who succeed in persuading those members 
among them who use tobacco to quit. They may 
apply to me, and I will cheerfully do what I can, 
with the help of the Lord, to assist them. This is 
not offered to hurt any one's feelings, but to urge a 
change for the better, and do that good which seems 
pleasing to the Lord. Pray for me, and may grace 
and love abound." 

We wonder whether prayers would do him any 
good, with his load of sin. We think he belongs 
to the devil's kingdom, and he has a host of follow- 
ers to that place. 

Will the reader turn to Luke, chapter fourteen, 
verses fourteenth to eighteenth : 

14. And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recom- 
pense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrec- 
tion of the just. 

15. And when one of them sat at meat with him heard 
these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat 
bread in the kingdom of God, 

16. Then said he unto him, A certain man made a 
great supper, add bade many: 

17. And sent his servant at supper time to say to them 
that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 



122 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

1 8. And they all with one consent began to make 
excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of 
ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have 
me excused. 

Fear not, ye child of God. If the devil stands 
in the pulpit and throws his fiery darts, be not 
afraid, but stand firm for God, do right, and trust 
in God. 



DANIEL WAGNER. 



I will now speak of one of the old deacons, who 
is a pious-looking old hypocrite, who went into 
court and testified in favor of those leaders of the 
conservative order, after telling me of their crooked 
ways, and after withdrawing himself from them, 
and joining the old order, because they were cor- 
rupt in their rulings. The deacon and his son, Isaac, 
both spoke to me of selling their farm and going to 
Cedar county, Iowa, and joining with some brethren 
there who had withdrawn themselves from the main 
church. I argued the case with them, and I bid 



DANIEL WAGNER. 123 



them to stand firm to their post, and take the Scrip- 
ture for the man of their counsel, but they could 
not stay under such bad ruling any longer. I told 
them that there was a work to do to correct such 
bad ruling. There is a plan laid down in the 
blessed Word of God to handle such people, and if 
they would stand by me that we would soon over- 
come that evil element ; and they said I could do 
nothing with that cousining ring. I asked them to 
do nothing against me, and I would show them what 
one man could do if he would put his trust in a 
higher power than a poor mortal man. They 
seemed willing, and even anxious, that I should 
proceed and fight their bitter enemies. They were 
willing to see the battle, but were too cowardly to 
strike a lick in the right direction. I called them 
drones and idlers. After they joined the old order, 
they were soon placed in the office of deacon. We 
will see what they did in keeping their words of 
not doing anything against me. The old man was 
influenced to go into court and give evidence that 
he would not believe me under oath. And now for 
his testimony : 

Lawyer. — " Mr. Wagner, do you know Mr. 
Girl?" 



124 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Ans. — " Yes, I have known him for over twenty- 
years." 

Ques. — " How is he for truth and veracity? " 

Ans. — " He is not good." 

Ques. — " Would you believe Mr. Girl under 
oath ?" 

Ans. — "No, I would not." 

Ques. — " Mr. Wagner, why is it that you 
would not believe Mr. Girl under oath?" 

He was silent for quite a while, and the lawyer 
and jury were waiting for an answer. He sat there 
as though he was deaf and dumb. Finally, the 
lawyer said : " Mr. Wagner, you must have a rea- 
son why you would not believe Mr. Girl under 
oath ?" 

Ans. —"Well, I bought a cow of Mr. Girl 
years ago, and she did not prove to be what he 
recommended her. I paid him forty dollars for her." 

Ques. — " Did you keep the cow ?" 

Ans. — " I kept her for three weeks." 

Ques. — " Did you take the cow back to Mr. 
Girl, and did he pay you the forty dollars back 
again ?" 

Ans. — " O, yes." 

Lawyer. — "That will do, Mr. Wagner." 



DANIEL WAGNER. 125 

I know that the cow was a No. i cow, and that 
she gave a large pail of milk when he took her 
away from the farm, and also when he brought her 
back. I made him believe I would take him up 
for perjury and slander. He got scared, and went 
off with his wife out west, I think to Wyoming Ter- 
ritory. They stayed there for some months. When 
they came back the court trials were not all over 
with, and the constable told me they had tried to 
dodge him, and that he caught some of them lying, 
some of the women even lying for their husbands 
in order to dodge the officer. 

Now, this same pious-looking deacon, before he 
was induced by an evil spirit, told me, in his own 
house, that he saw that I was a terribly persecuted 
man, and that he passed many a sleepless hour in 
his bed thinking over my grievances. He pretended 
that he was one of my best friends, and he bid me 
God-speed in whipping out those that he hated so 
bad. He called the conservatives hypocrites, but 
gave in evidence enough to cause the brethren to 
become disgusted with such a deacon in their fra- 
ternity ; but, perhaps, they are powerless, for he 
will deny these facts to them. Are those Christian 
principles, or the work of the devil? It will not 



126 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

take a very shrewd man to see through the devil- 
ment. I sent a spy to test him, and he spoke un- 
concerned of me, and spoke of what a time I had 
with those Dunkards up around Cerro Gordo, and 
he told the spy that it was a shame the way they 
had abused Mr. Girl. He said, " I have lived 
neighbor to Mr. Girl for over twenty years, and I 
never had a better neighbor than he was." What 
would you call such a man as that ? Would you 
call him a snake in the grass ? Yes, worse than 
that. A devil in the church, set up on a pinnacle 
as a pattern for the congregation. Great God! 
what will our Christian religion be in ten years 
more from now, if there is no change made for the 
better. 

A stranger told me he had left his church, and I 
asked him on what account. He said, " They 
wanted to keep a man in the church who had stolen 
a hog worth forty dollars, and I told them that if 
they did not expel him I would leave the church. 
He was a man of means, and tried to be a hog 
thief and a christian at the same time." 

I will now quote a passage of Scripture for the 
old deacon, and then will drop him, hoping that the 
Lord will pick him up and set him in the christian's 



DANIEL WAGNER. 127 

path. He is serving the devil, and he will reap the 
wages of sin unless he changes his ways. May 
God help the unbelievers and the mockers to a 
better and a higher standard in the christian life. 
Please turn to II Peter, chap, ii: 

1. But there were false prophets also among the 
people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, 
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even deny- 
ing the Lord that bought them, and bring upon them- 
selves swift destruction. 

2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by 
reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 

4. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but 
cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of 
darkness, to be reserved unto judgement. 

8. (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in 
seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to 
day with their unlawful deeds;) 

9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of 
temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of 
judgment to be punished: 

12. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken 
and destroyed, speak evil of things that they understand 
not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 

13. And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, 
as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. 
Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with 
their own deceivings while they feast with you; 



128 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

15. Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone 
astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, 
who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 

16. But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass 
speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the 
prophet. 

I will now show to the reader some more of the 
opposition I had in fighting my enemies, who were 
trying to do me all the evil they possibly could, but 
in a sly way, so that the world should not suspect 
them, and they tried to induce everybody to go 
against me — tried every way that the devil dictated 
to them to injure my reputation ; at the same time 
they would stand in the pulpit and pretend to their 
hearers that God is an allwise being, one that 
knows the very intents of the human heart, and God 
wants us to worship him in the spirit and the truth ; 
that we cannot deceive God, and a liar cannot enter 
the kingdom of heaven. The wages of sin is death ; 
and they were very particular in laying before their 
hearers the ordinances of God's law at the time of 
their communion meetings, before going to the 
Lord's supper as they termed it, and they would 
refer to such chapters as warned them to examine 
themselves. 



ISAAC WAGNER. 



I will now show to the reader that I have in all 
instances warned all who have become subjects of 
this book by letter. Some of them I have warned 
for many, years. Here is a deacon, a son of "Old 
Older," who gave in such bright evidence to try 
and break my oath in the cow-business, and it seems 
as though his son Isaac, is willing to sustain his 
father in his false evidence. We hope the bishop 
of that church will not suffer such things to be 
smuggled up in their church without a trial of 
investigation. It will render both father and son 
unfit to belong to any christian organization unless 
they confess their sins before God and'man. Isaac 
is a man who thinks himself competent to judge for 
himself in financial and religious matters. He was 
ready to condemn the conservative party, especially 
the cousining ring. He said there was no good 
government in that element of the church, and that 
he was going to leave them, and go with the old 



130 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

order. I told him he had better not do that, but 
stand by me and we would correct such bad ruling. 
He laughed at the thought of my working against 
such a force, and said they would overpower me. I 
said, no, they would not. I told him he did not 
believe the Word of God, where it says that the 
christian believer shall not be persecuted above 
what he can. Well, he turned "old older," and 
some more followed his example by rising to their 
feet, and organized themselves into a class. Isaac 
Wagner and his father were elected to office as 
deacons, and old Jacob Miller as their elder. Isaac 
Wagner became an active worker in trying to build 
up the " old order " church by quarreling with those 
same persons that I condemned as liars and hypo- 
crites, and before he left them he knew many things 
and said many things that were hard against them, 
but he did it in a sly way. He was too cowardly 
to come out and fight them in the open field. He 
was willing to carry news, and that just made me 
much trouble*. So one day I met him on the road, 
and told him he had to stop that kind of work ; that 
he must stand on one side or the other ; that he 
could not carry water on both shoulders. I was on 
horseback, and he was cutting weeds and had a hoe 



ISAAC WAGNER. 131 



in his hands, and he sassed me, and I, as quick as 
thought, got off my horse and started for him. He 
leaped over the hedge like a deer, with his hoe in 
his hands, and I went on about my business. After 
that he and his father were willing to stand in to 
help those ornery ones to scream out their mischief. 
Can we call such as them true friends? 

A butcher bought some cows of his father and 
his brother-in-law, and they were to deliver them 
for so much money, and in bringing them to town 
they tied one behind the wagon and it got stub- 
born, and they pounded and dragged it in such a 
way that they finally had to load it on the wagon, 
which rendered it unfit for beef, and they met and 
drew their money. The butcher, not being satis- 
fied with such a delivery, proposed that they should 
lose half of the value, as it was delivered half dead. 
He sent word to this Isaac Wagner that he would 
bring suit against them if they did not come and 
settle the matter. The young deacon began to 
bristle up to the butcher and make threats. He 
said to the butcher, "if you sue my father, I will 
come and swear that you told us to bring them dead 
or alive." The butcher said he would give him a 
thousand dollars if he would swear to that. He 



132 HUMAN BE PR A VITT. 

could not scare the butcher with his unreasonable 
threats, and he went home after telling another lie 
on the top of the one he was going to swear to. 
He was asked whether his brother-in-law was in 
town, and he said he was not, but the butcher saw 
them together in town the same day. 

Will the bishop correct such deacons. If he 
will not, then I would say to him he is no good 
shepherd. The world is talking about such ornery 
church members, and well they may. May God 
pity such weak members and take them out of the 
way of those that would do well, and might be good 
workers in the church, for the world to look at and 
patern after. O, may they repent and do better. 
They boast of heaven and happiness and have noth- 
ing but the empty husks, — only a form of worship. 
Cease to do evil and learn to do Tight, is our Sav- 
iour's instructions, and be saved. 



JACOB WAGNER. 



We now speak of one of the now-deceased 
joining elders, namely, Jacob Wagner. As it was 
my privilege to call on the joining elders to inves- 
tigate this trouble, I visited him at various times, 
but he declined having anything to do with the mat- 
ter. After hearing my grievances he acted rather 
sly and obstinate, and walked by me without speak- 
ing a word. I wrote very personal letters to him 
about his slackness of duty as a shepherd. I asked 
him and his wife to come and see me, but he re- 
fused to do so after I had been acquitted at court 
and pronounced sane. I met Mr. Wagner on the 
sidewalk in Decatur, and asked him "what do you 
think now?" He said, "Well, Chris., there is 
something wrong somewhere." I had told him what 
was wrong long before that, but that was all I could 
could get out of the old bishop at that time. 
Sometime after that I saw him talking with Deacon 
Funk, and I walked up to him and said, " Wagner, 



134 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

what did you mean by it when you said there is 
something very wrong somewhere ? " He said that 
he meant that all the wrong was between me and 
my family. I told him that it was not true, and 
that he knew better ; and I left him and wrote him 
another very personal letter. I afterwards went to 
his house. The old lady bid me be seated, and 
pretty soon the old bishop came in, and I told him 
what I had said to his wife. I told him that I 
had written some very personal letters to him, and 
that I was ready to make acknowledgments if he 
asked them of me. He said he had nothing to ask 
of me. It was pretty near night, and they asked 
me to sleep there. I unhitched my horse and 
stayed, and was treated kindly. I talked very free 
about the evil men and women who had falsely im- 
prisoned me, and how treacherously they had 
treated me and my family, and there was no contra- 
diction made by either the bishop or his wife. They 
seemed as though they were afraid to take any 
action in the case. 

It was not very long after this that God called 
them away to eternity, the bishop dying first, and 
his wife followed him in a few weeks, and they are 
now in the hands of a just God. We have nothing 



JACOB WAGNER. 135 



evil to speak of them, only we think there was a 
lack of the Christian courage so much admired in 
the teachings of our Blessed Saviour by all true 
people. As the poet says in the hymn eight hun- 
dred and four: 

" Be firm, be bold, he strong, be true, 
And dare to stand alone; 
Strive for the right whate'er ye do, 
Tho' helpers there be none. 

"Nay, bend not the swelling surge 
Of fashion's sneers and wrong, 
'Twill bear thee on to ruin's verge, 
With current wild and strong. 

" Stand for the right though falsehood rail, 
And proud lips coldly sneer, 
A poisoned arrow cannot wound 
A conscience pure and clear. 

" Stand for the right, and with clean hands 
Exalt the truth, on high; 
Thou 'It find warm sympathizing hearts 
Among the passers by." 



LEONARD WAGNER. 



I will now speak of one of my neighbors. 
Leonard Wagner is a deacon in the Okaw Church, 
and became one of her counselors. He is a brother- 
in-law to A. Bingaman, and pretended that he stood 
neutral, but I mistrusted that he was a tool for his 
brother-in-law, the devil's hired hand, so one day I 
made him show his colors by coming down on him. 
He stood in the open field against me, and was 
very impudent and saucy, and even abusive to me, 
but of course I could hoe my own row with him, for 
he was a fool and a tool for his ornery brother-in- 
law. I afterwards met Wagner on business, and 
tried to buy some corn from him. He was short in 
his talk, and would not sell me any corn. I told 
him he was short and snarly, asked him what was 
wrong, and why he did not reply. I told him that 
I expected to move on to my farm in the spring, 
and that I wanted to be friendly, so that I would 
have some neighbors, but he said he would not 



LEONARD WAGNER. 137 

neighbor with me. I then asked him if I had ever 
done him any wrong, and he said I had been very 
saucy to him. I told him it was only tit for tat. 
That he had intimated that I was insane, and that 
I had just as much right to say the same of him. I 
asked him to reason with me, and told him that an 
intelligent jury had pronounced me sane. He 
answered and said, " You don't act like a sane man, 
going round calling people devils and hypocrites.' ' 
I told him that I wanted to call people by their 
right names. His wife and mother-in-law heard 
the most of the conversation. I said to him, that I 
wanted to be a christian ; that I thought I knew my 
christian duty. I then asked him if he could for- 
give me of all the wrong that I ever did to him. 
He would not answer, and I asked him the second 
time, but got no answer. I then told him that 
I was cleared before God and man and it did not 
matter to me whether he forgave me or not. I told 
him I could do no more with him, and " if you pray 
the Lord's prayer, you had better stop and consider 
what you are praying when you come to where it 
says ' forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.' ' 
We assured him that the malice that he held in his 
heart must be rooted out before God would accept 



138 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

him in His bright and glorious heaven above, where 
all is peace and glory among the angels. You can- 
not enter with stained garments on ; they must be 
washed white as the driven snow in the blood of 
the Lamb, then God, in His infinite mercy, will 
assign you a place among His glorious angel band. 



M. M. ESHELMAN. 



This man is a natural-born fool. He wrote an 
article for a paper intended for my benefit, and I 
will now give it in my book: "A spiritual wind- 
sucker may be a necessity in the universe, I will not 
say he is not. He may be an instrument to increase 
patience and charity in those who are born of the 
spirit, but his methods and mission are not to be 
envied. And now, why dost thou afflict thyself, 
dear brother, because you cannot run in the minis- 
try before you have learned to walk. Just why 
you should be cast down in your mind, or why you 
should feel ill towards those who long practiced 
before they could run, is not quite true to those 



M. M. ESHELMAN. 139 



crumbs. You had better get down to solid work, 
read, study, pray and meditate, and the sinews of 
your heart and soul will grow strong, so that you, 
too, may run a swift race. These crumbs have no 
use for words and letters which say ugly things 
about brethern and sisters. You may save your 
postage if you are tempted to inflict on crumbs 
your doleful tale, your envious soul, and your 
inflamed mind, because, forsooth, that at some time 
and in some place your brother was in your way. 
These crumbs have no need of evil surmisings. 
The story-peddler is a popular person in some 
places. It seems there are always some individuals 
standing on every cross-road, figuratively speaking, 
with ears open and grinning countenance to hear 
the latest gossip in the land. If the story-peddler 
has a good word for the listener's opponent he is 
not heard with pleasure." 

Now, it is plain to see, that this was written for 
me. He charges my letters of being full of ugly 
things and vile stuff. If they are of such stuff I 
would like to know what kind of religion you are 
possessed of? You have put me down as a vaga- 
bond of the earth, and you want to drown and kill 
me from the face of the earth. Now, if you had 



140 HUMAN BEPRA VITY. 

any religion of the Blessed Saviour, you would have 
to meet your fellow-man that is in trouble, and 
administer to his grief and stricken heart ; but no, 
you possess the spirit of the devil, and it teaches 
you to write those insinuating articles and have 
them printed, and send them broadcast over the 
land to try and crush me, and prejudice people 
against me. If the contents of your book, called 
the " Two Sticks," is full of such stuff, it will not be 
read with pleasure among enlightened people. 
You had better take it among the heathens, for 
they will not know any better. That may be the 
idea that has struck you, and is the reason you 
have come here among these religious fools to sell 
your "Two Sticks," Some of you people are just 
like a lot of dogs — wherever the big one goes, 
there all the little ones follow. All the little, 
ornery, long-bearded, flat-headed, good-for-nothing 
curs are to be found around the rotten cesspool of 
Cerro Gordo Church. Where the carcass lays 
there the stench is great. 

Mr. Eshelman, if you had the true religion in 
your heart you would have answered my letters 
about exchanging books. Why did you not want 
to exchange books ? It was that devil in your heart 



M. M. ESHELMAN. 141 



that told you not to do it. So you thought I was 
insane and could not write a book, but I will show 
you that I can write a book, and I can do more. I 
will expose you and all of your corrupt devils be- 
sides. You Dunkards are selfish ; you have 
preached and prayed to my family until you have 
distressed them, and almost drove them insane, and 
then, instead of giving them a helping hand, you 
wanted to go into Mr. Berry's house and pray some 
more of your vile stuff to that poor, distracted 
daughter of mine. It moves my heart with emotion 
to think that you and that long-bearded fool of a 
Cripe had no more sense than to think that you 
could do a poor, sick girl any good with your pray- 
ers, when there is nothing more abominable in the 
sight of God than prayers from the lips of such men 
as you. Now take heed that you do no harm when 
you are walking up and down in the hearts of those 
people as you made your vain threats of bigotry, 
for that is all it is. It seems as pollution, you were 
so set in your blind ways that you overlooked good 
judgment. You might have known that my days 
were but few at best, but you seemed to delight in 
your persecution ; but I have strong hopes in my 
God that he will reward me for all of my trials, and 



142 HUMAN DEPRA VITT. 



finally save me at last, and that is more than he 
will do for you hypocrites, for you will never see 
heaven if you live to be as old as Methuselah, for the 
longer you live the more sin you commit, and the 
more your deeds will damn you to hell, if you do 
not repent of your wicked ways. 



JACOB DEARDORFF. 



I will now give a brief statement of the trouble 
I had with my former tenants, Jacob Deardorff and 
son. The son is a spoiled boy. His mother says 
that the time he was unfortunate and lost his limb 
on the railroad as a brakeman, he was nearly dead, 
and they have petted and spoiled him. It is well 
known that when these people moved on my farm 
they advocated my cause very strong and con- 
demned my persecutors. I made my home with 
them until they asked me for the farm for the 
fourth year. All was right with our settlements, 
which we had every year, and we always settled 
without a word of dispute. It could be, and was, 



JACOB DEARDORFF. 143 

proven that they had said to the citizens of Macon 
and Piatt counties that they had never had a better 
man to deal with than C. Girl ; and thus we got 
along nicely until they got refused for the farm for 
the fourth year, and then that wooden-legged, un- 
ruly boy commenced to blow, and the old man com- 
menced to blow, and they got the old lady riled up 
against me, and the daughter began to make sour 
faces at me, and I was no more welcome at their 
house, just because they could not have the farm 
for another year. I tried to reason the case with 
them, — that I wanted the farm myself to get my 
boys to farm in order to make more money to pay 
off the incumbrance upon it, so as to save it from 
being sold under a mortgage claim. I also told 
them that I wanted to get my family reconciled, but 
they would not accept my good reasoning, but 
kept on blowing and abusing me in every possible 
way, intimating that I was a thief. They crowded 
me out of the house, out of my reserved stable 
room, and out of my wagon shed. The old man 
said, " take your d — d old carriage out in the 
road." I did so, and afterwards made a shed for it 
on my reserved pasture lands. He demanded a 
settlement, and we appointed a time to settle before 



144 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Tommy Albert, in Decatur, as he wrote and held 
the articles of agreement. I agreed to meet him at 
Albert's house at one o'clock. I went there at one 
o'clock, and Mrs. Albert told me her husband would 
not be home until evening. Deardorff got angry, 
and went to Long Creek Station and sued me be- 
fore 'Squire Rucker for a settlement, and as I was 
not ready to appear for trial on account of an absent 
witness, the 'Squire granted a continuance of one 
week, and I proposed to settle the matter right 
then and there by arbitration, and my offer was ac- 
cepted. He chose a man by the name of Harry 
Wright. I chose Mr. Cochran, and they chose the 
third man, Mr. Nowland. Mr. Cochran wanted to 
know whether we would agree to stand by the set- 
tlement they made for us. I spoke up at once, and 
said, certainly, and Deardorff said yes. They then 
went to work and got our accounts. DeardorfFs 
account was, I think, sixty dollars and thirty-five, 
cents. My account was upwards of seventy dol- 
lars. The arbitrators gave him six dollars and 
thirty-five cents, and we were to pay the costs, half 
and half, which was three dollars and twenty cents. 
I pulled my money out and laid it on the 'Squire's 
table, but Deardorff would not take it, but went to 



JACOB DFARDORFF. 145 

town and saw Lawyer Buckingham, who induced 
him to take the case to court. Deardorff did so, 
and he made his bill against me for one hundred 
and ninety-nine dollars. When the case came be- 
fore the court, lawyers Bunn and Park made a plea 
before Judge Hughes, and stated that the matter 
had been settled by arbitration before 'Squire 
Rucker, and the judge dismissed the suit. 

I think the shrewd, but not wise, Buckingham, 
who belongs to the Baptist Church, must be a pillar 
and a pattern for a church to look at. If the pastor 
of his church can make a christian out of such 
lawyers, he is a good worker in the Lord's vine- 
yard. It may be that the pastor is not after his 
soul, but it is possible that he may be after that 
which damns the soul, as we read that the love of 
money is the root of all evil. Will the reader think 
for one moment of the devilment of DeardorfT's 
unjust bill of sixty dollars and thirty-five cents 
against a true and honest account of something 
like seventy dollars, and then go back on a com- 
mittee's work, and raise their unjust account with- 
out any further dealing to the sum of one hundred 
and ninety-nine dollars. There would have been 

just as much justice on their side if they had raised 
10 



146 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



it to one thousand dollars. Mr. Deardorff declared 
he would make it hot for me. If he believes that 
that there is a hell, we think he is carrying his own 
brimstone with him to his final abode to last him 
through eternity, unless he will repent ©f his unfair 
dealing. Lawyer Buckingham supported him in 
such a hellish work. Not satisfied with the judge's 
decision they went to 'Squire Curtis, and brought 
suit the third time. The old cripple was willing to 
hear the case, I suppose in order to make a few 
dollars, after the arbitrators had given in their 
evidence in favor of me, and had left it. The 
Deardorffs were put on the stand, and they testi- 
fied that they had told the arbitrators that they 
would not stand to the settlement unless I brought 
in a fair account, and they swore to the most 
unreasonable things that the foreman, and all of 
them, and none of the outsiders, ever heard of 
before the men made their decision. The old 
'Squire gave them a judgment for seventy-four 
dollars, and costs. I put the case back into court. 
The 'Squire needs some recommendations. I will 
let Lawyer Mills recommend him, as he became my 
attorney to handle the case. In talking to Mills 
about the unfair suit before 'Squire Curtis, he asked 



JACOB DEARDORFF. 147 

me who their attorney was. I told him Bucking- 
ham, and that Bunn was my lawyer, and he said 
that there was no lawyer who could win a case 
before Curtis against Buckingham. This is a good 
recommendation for a justice of the peace. I 
wonder what church he belongs to ? Mr. Mills 
neglected the suit at c@urt, so he is no better than 
the crippled 'Squire. He will make another good 
pillar for some church. Deardorff got a judgment 
against me which amounted to the sum of $119.95. 
He was in a hurry to have Constable Dillahunt 
serve it and levy on the last unincumbered prop- 
erty that I had left on my farm, namely, horses and 
plows, carriage and corn. Dillahunt made his 
brags that he had taken about a thousand dollars 
worth of property to make the amount. Deardorff 
went to the farm where the sheriff's sale was to be, 
I suppose, to buy some cheap horses, but the sale 
was stayed by me paying off the execution a few 
days before the appointed time, so Deardorff was 
defeated in buying cheap property. George Stair 
had a note against Deardorff of many years' stand- 
ing. Stair said, if he thought Deardorff would not 
get mad at him he would let me have the note, and 
shove it against the judgment. Who would pity 



148 HUMAN BEPRA VITY. 

old George Stair if he would lose that note. I was 
feeding two carloads of cattle. I tried to get Dear- 
dorff to cut up my share of corn early in the fall, 
but he would not do it for spite. I asked him if I 
could cut up my share of corn to feed my cattle, but 
he objected to that. I then offered him ten 
dollars an acre for his share, but he would not take 
it, but finally offered his share of forty acres at 
fifteen dollars per acre. He told me that " Those 
Dunkards were right when they said you was 
crazy." Well, I told him, that if I paid him fifteen 
dollars an acre for his corn the people would have 
reason to think me crazy. They lost several hundred 
dollars by not taking me up at my offer. I went to 
Mr. Phillips and bought corn for ten dollars per 
acre, that had a third more corn than his. I told 
them they had better go and join the cousining ring 
of Dunkards, and get the boy preacher to baptize 
them. They even tried to prevent me from getting^ 
my own feed in the granary, declaring they would 
throw it out if I did not take it out. 

One evening I went to Mr. Phillips on some 
business. The old man Deardorff and son were on 
the wagon at the barn, and they made faces at me, 
as I rode'by on my horse, but not a word was said. 



JACOB DEARDORFF. 149 

They were the only two persons I saw on my way 
that evening. On my return, along the east side 
of my farm, where there was a hedge fence with 
plenty of hedge apples upon it, all at once the 
apples came flying thick at me. My horse jumped ; 
I checked him and turned around and said, " Who 
are you?" but there was no answer. I leave the 
reader to judge who the cowards were, and will call 
all such prairie wolves, as I called C. Funk and 
others. When the Deardorffs began to get bitter 
at me I begged them for mercy, and to listen to 
reason. I said, in a mild way of reasoning, you 
will hurt yourselves and your reputation, for I will 
prove myself the innocent party in this conflict, and 
begged of them to not go hand in hand with these 
evil men and women ; but my pleadings for mercy 
were sneered at by them, and they laughed at me. 
Even Mrs. Deardorff sent a little boy out to the 
granary to see what I was doing while I was getting 
some of my oats to feed my horses under a shade 
tree, after they had crowded me out of my stable 
room. The little boy came to the granary as he was 
directed to do by the old lady. I talked friendly to 
the little chap. After I had several bushels sacked 
and carried out, the old lady shouted sharply at the 



150 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

boy to come into the house. When he got there 
she asked him what the old devil was doing. I don't 
know what the answer was that the boy made to 
her. I think it was on the same day that the old 
woman was boiling soap on my reserved land, and 
I happened to pass her on my way to pump some 
water for my stock. I said to her, "Mrs. Dear- 
dorff, I am no devil, but a terribly persecuted man 
by a set of lying devils." She made no answer, and 
it seems that silence gives consent. She was a 
little sorry that she was so rash in her expression 
to call a persecuted man a devil, — the one that 
bound his broken limbs and bathed them with lini- 
ments, who was bruised up by a cruel outlaw of a 
lying son-in-law. At that time the old woman took 
great pains to condem these brutal people. Old 
Jacob sometimes almost grit his teeth, he got so 
mad at the way my enemies treated me. 

One Sunday morning two of Eshelman's boys 
came to his house, and I tried to reason with them 
to show them that they were under the influence of 
C. Funk, a regular outlaw. The big, overgrown 
impudent had the impudence to call me a liar. The 
old man could not stand that, and he drove the 
gang off from his house, but he afterwards called 



JACOB DEARDORFF. 151 

me a liar, a devil, and a dishonest man, and even a 
crazy one. Well, I will let the reader judge for 
himself who the crazy one is. 

I had loaned this man Deardorff one hundred 
dollars before I started for Florida, and when the 
note became due, and past due, I became hard up 
for money, and asked him for its payment, and he 
got mad. He did not pay the interest, and so I 
bought the interest on my account when he sued 
me for a settlement. I have had many settlements 
with citizens both in Piatt and Macon counties for 
nearly twenty-two years, and never in my life was I 
sued for a settlement before. He sued me for 
spite and self-gain. I am thinking the unjust treat- 
ment will be a loss to him in the end. It seemed 
that he and his outlaw of a boy took great pains in 
trying to bemean me and break my character down. 
I understand that he went to an old, good, honest 
citizen, and he began to blow against me, to try and 
belittle me. The man listened to him awhile, and 
then asked him if he thought he could ruin a man's 
reputation by talking, — a man who had lived in 
their neighborhood for so many years, and had 
showed himself a good man by his home conduct. 
I gave Deardorff to understand that he would hurt 
himself to attempt such a thing. 



152 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

This was my only means of fighting so many 
enemies. I might, perhaps, have whipped some of 
them by muscular power, but as that is not my 
favorite way of fighting — it is carnal nature's way, 
a kind of a doggish way of settling difficulties — I 
will try and take the Saviour's way as much as it 
lies in my power, hoping that when these remarks 
shall reach the guilty parties, they may repent from 
their evil ways, and learn a lesson not to be tools 
and act as fools for others, and come over to the 
innocent party, and not disgrace themselves. They 
are hated by God and man. We read that the 
christian will be hated by man — that don't matter 
so much, but if God hates them all earthly and 
heavenly hopes are gone. Let us act as wise men 
and not as fools. 

When this family came on my farm they were 
fond of boasting of their city manners, and still 
they were very jokey, and they wanted to pick me 
out a wife, so they brought out from town their 
widowed sister, and planned to throw us together 
in society, and when I came home they could not 
wait until I put my team away. They stuck their 
heads out of the door and windows, and shouted, 
" Come in here, we have got somebody here; come 



WILLIAM HEIL. 153 



in and see." I walked in, and one said, "See 
here ; " another said, " Look there, see what we have 
got for you." Great God, what refined manners! 
Everything went along very smoothly between 
us, and we all enjoyed ourselves for some time, until 
I refused to let them have the farm for the fourth 
year, and then it seemed as though the evil spirit 
took possession of them, and they did all they could 
to aggravate me and beat me financially. But God 
is good, and will deliver all his children from the 
hands of the wicked in the end. My prayer is that 
they may ask God to forgive them, and may they 
live better lives in years to come. 



WILLIAM HEIL. 



I will now give a few pages on account of my 
late tenant's conduct and actions towards me. He 
was introduced to me by A. J. Rainey, as a good 
farmer, and he also spoke very highly of Mrs. Heil 
— that she was as neat as a pin. I went out to the 
farm the same day they moved, and helped them to 
unload their goods, get some wood ready for a fire 



154 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

when their stove was up, etc. We worked till bed- 
time in the evening, and then went to Mrs. Mark- 
er's and stayed all night with them. Mrs. Heil did 
not come with them, but had gone to Decatur. 
When she came back I asked her whether she 
would board me awhile, as I wanted to fix the gar- 
den fences, and make a general improvement about 
the house. She was anxious that I should make 
the improvements, but refused to board me. I told 
her I would pay her for my board, but she refused 
to board me. She wanted me to fix up things, but 
I told her I could not do that without a place to 
stay, and they looked at me as if I was a prairie 
wolf on account of Deardorff's slanderous talk 
about me. I went to Mr. Heil and asked him if he 
would rent me the summer house, and he seemed 
to be afraid to let me have it. I made a proposi- 
tion to him, that I would rent the house for one 
month at a time, and at the end of the month, if it 
was disagreeable, I would move away. After the 
month was up I said to him, "Well, Mr. Heil, how 
is it now; can we stay any longer?" He smiled 
and said, " Well, if you don't get any more insane 
than you have been thus far, you can stay," but 
before he permitted me to stay he said he would see 



WILLIAM HEIL. 155 



Rainey. I told him I was sure that Rainey had no 
right to object to it. Heil got it into his Dutch 
head that Mr. Rainey would have to be consulted 
about it. I told him that Rainey would laugh at 
him. I went to town and he wrote a few lines and 
sent them in by me to hand to Rainey. I did so, 
and he read the note and laughed, and said that he 
was not HeiPs guardian, that he could rent me 
everything for what he cared. We got along 
together very well until after harvest, when he 
asked me for the farm for another year. I told him 
that I would farm it myself; that I wanted to get my 
family together and get them reconciled, and that I 
could not keep my indebtedness paid up, and that 
I must make more money in order to pay the illegal 
debts that had been forced upon me. He asked 
the second and third times. 

About that time C. Funk and others found that 
he was getting crusty at me, and they were not 
slow to urge the jealous man with their lies as they 
did the Deardorffs. C. Funk made up a lie to get 
them angry at me, by saying that I said I did not 
get my share of the grain that was raised on the 
farm, and they were ready to believe him. So with 
Heil. He was ready to believe any lie against me 



156 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

because he had his heart full of malice. Reason 
had no influence on his rattled brain, but he became 
wild and irritable and even ugly, and began to make 
villainous threats that somebody would get their 
heart stamped out of them. One day he was in 
the stable and I and my son Charley were in the 
feed room, and he talked very saucy and impudent. 
I tried to reason with him, and Charley Girl shall 
be my witness if he tries to deny this. I told him 
I was preparing a history, and that certain ones 
would become subjects of it. In an important way 
he said, you had better give me a few pages in 
your history. I told him I would do it at his own 
request. He said he wanted me to write the truth, 
and I said, " O, yes, I am noted for that," I am 
penning it down this moment to be put in print to 
stand forever open before the public. Reader, this 
is the only way left me to break down the evil in- 
fluence that was brought against me by so-called 
Christian professors. " He that giveth himself in 
evil hands shall perish therein." Heil is young yet, 
and has, perhaps, many years to live. It is to be 
hoped that he may learn a good lesson not to be 
persuaded by a set of outlaws. 



WILLIAM HEIL. 1 57 



Hoping my own young and inexperienced boys 
and girls, and others, may also learn a lesson, right 
here we will show some more of Heil's ugliness. 
He now became very jealous against my son 
Charley because he came home and commenced 
farming. They both met at the stable and he said, 
" Charley, you are a darned fool to come home and 
farm your father's poor land." Charley had been 
imposed on by him before that time. He is a good- 
natured boy. He gave Heil an answer to his 
impudent and insulting talk. The boy said to him : 
" Well, Heil, there are a good many who would 
like to get a chance to farm this poor land if they 
could only get it." After he was refused the land 
the third time, he delared "that he did not want 
my poor and stony land," although he had raised a 
better crop than he had ever raised before in his 
life. Poor as the season was, he raised over eleven 
hundred bushels of oats, and about two thousand 
bushels of corn. 

He kept abusing Charley until the boy could 
bear it no longer ; making threats to others that 
someone would get their liver stamped out. We 
naturally supposed that it referred to us, but as the 
saying is, " a barking dog never bites," we did not 



158 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

take much notice of his threats, but attended to our 
own business. Charley was plowing some wheat 
ground, and as we were scare of feed, I asked him 
whether he had any objection to us taking several 
rows of corn alongside of where we were plowing 
for wheat. I told him that we wanted some corn 
to feed a pig or two, and to use the fodder for the 
horses. Told him it was nubbin corn, and it would 
save him gathering that much and hauling it off to 
market, but he would not consent to it. I went 
and cut off a small load and took it to the stable, 
and while I was husking some of the nubbins of 
corn for my pigs Charley was carrying some of the 
fodder in to give to the horses. Heil came up to 
the wagon and commenced to make threats of 
prosecution for taking my own corn. He came 
close to me, made up his fists at me, and threatened 
to whip me. 

I tried to reason the case with him, but he kept 
on calling me a liar, and declared that I was 
crazy, and that he would whip me. I told him that 
as far as that was concerned he need have no 
sympathy, for I had been proven a sane man by an 
honorable jury. I told him to keep his hands off 
me. Charley could not stand it to see his father 



WILLIAM HE1L. 159 



abused in that manner. He stood about one rod 
from us, and heard Heil abuse me, and spoke to 
him, and said, " Who are you calling crazy ? If you 
think my father insane you had better not pile on to 
him." He then said to Charley, " Maybe you want 
to take it up for you father," and struck at him. 
Charley was too much for him. He began to back 
him up, and Charley made every stroke count, for 
I could see sore bumps on Heil's head, and his face 
began to get bloody. He was knocked flat on his 
back, and was badly hurt. 

The old bulldog, who is so old that he has 
scarcely any teeth, and is nearly blind, got excited 
and commenced barking, and Heil, feeling the want 
of help in the struggle, tried to get him to join in. 
I and the bulldog were the umpires of the battle. 
The boy said to some of his associates that he en- 
joyed the fight. Heil was taken to the house by 
his wife, with a bruised head. It was noon, and 
when we were in the house eating he made threats 
that he would take the axe to the son-of-a-guns, 
but made no attempt to do so. He would have 
got a warm reception, for the boy was ready for 
him at his own game. 

We then left the farm but our goods were still 



160 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

there in the house. I wanted to secure my goods 
by putting a new lock on the door, and I was put- 
ting it on when he came and ordered me to stop. 
I stopped and went off, and the goods were exposed 
to thieves. 

Early in the fall I walked into the orchard to 
get an apple to eat. Heil came out and said, 
" Come in, I am ready to settle witH you." I 
walked in. I had my book with me, and he got 
his book. There was only a few dollars between 
us. I let him have his own way. He did all the 
settling and I submitted to it, and put it down and 
the date of settlement. Then I was ready to leave 
the house and go about my business, but he told 
me to hold on for a while. He was writing out a 
statement about our settlement. He did not read 
it, but got up from his chair and said, " Now, I want 
you to sign this paper." I asked him what for, and 
he said about our settlement. I said all we needed 
was to put down, the date of it and the amount due, 
and I have that down in my book. " He says, 
*" well, I will make you sign it," and he began to 
make two fists at me, and tried to force me to sign 
his paper. He said, with as savage a look as his 
old bulldog could make, " Come right up here and 



WILLIAM HE1L. 161 



sign this paper." He had made charges for some 
things he said he would not charge for, one of 
which was for cleaning out the cistern. He had 
told me if I would get some cement he would help 
me to fix it without charge, as they would have the 
benefit of it. He then said, " you will not go out 
of this house until you sign this paper." I began 
to look for a chair with which to defend myself. 
I said, "you will make me sign that paper against 
my will ? No, sir. This will be a bloody kitchen 
before you make me sign that paper/' He then 
began to lose grit. I told him that he could drive 
an ox to water but could not make him drink. 

The reader may wonder how I got away. I 
stood my ground until he cooled down, and then I 
walked out and the coward followed me and abused 
me. I walked through the gate and left the gate 
open. His wife came out after him. As soon as 
I was outside the gate, off came my coat and it was 
tossed on the fence, and I said to him, " Now, come 
right out here, you infernal coward, and I will whip 
you in a minute." Then he backed out. 

It was his request that I should give him a few 

pages in my history. I hope he will benefit by it, 

and never again mistreat an old man as he did me, 
ll 



162 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

and have a little respect for old age. If those things 
do not come home to him in his young days, they 
will in his old. It was nothing but spite work from 
the time they were refused the farm for another 
year. 

If I was a tenant, and asked a landlord for a 
farm, and he gave me as good a reason for not 
wanting to rent it as I gave to him, I would not 
stand and quarrel about it with him, and especially 
with a crazy landord, as he said I was. 

May they resolve never to abuse another land- 
lord as they did me, and I hope they will repent of 
their evil deeds. 



S. FOUTZ, J. WISE, and J. ULERY, 



Leonard Foutz. 
I will now speak of Leonard Foutz. He is a 
deacon in the Okaw Church. He seems to be an 
industrious old deacon, and some years ago he and 
his wife had a great deal of trouble about the evil 
ruling in Metzker's Church, and even had some 
very serious^church trials before that precinct, and 



JOHNNY WISE. 163 



he and his wife seemed to entertain a hard feeling 
against the majority of that cousining ring, and 
they seemed to stand by me many years in putting 
down unjust proceedings in that ring, but, alas, they 
turned their backs when the battle began to get hot ; 
they flinched, and I was no more welcome at their 
house, but they turned bitter against me, and even 
declared that I tried to destroy the Dunkard's 
Church, and I think they became active members 
against me, and they went hand in hand with my 
persecutors, blindly led along by a set of liars. We 
think such idolatry and combination should be 
broke up, then the christian religion would shine 
forth in its true light. May all religious people 
give the warning sound, if not in a history, in the way 
of lifting their voices against the great evil that is 
now praticed among christian professors. I hope 
they will remember that God is not to be mocked. 

Johnny Wise. 

I met Johnny Wise at the annual conference, 
and shook hands with him, and I opened the subject 
of my persecution. He seemed very friendly and 
sympathetic towards me, and I approached him like 
this: " Johnny, why don't you answer the many 



164 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

letters I have written to you for years? " He said, 
"Brother Girl, I have answered all the letters you 
have written to me." I told him that was strange, 
as I had received none of them. Now, I will not 
intimate that he did not tell me the facts in the case, 
but we will see how these things pan out. We will 
see whether I was earnest in my pleadings, for soon 
afterwards I lost my suits at court, or before Johnny 
Metzker's court, where he sat as judge himself, the 
cousining ring were the jury, and the devil's hired 
hands the lawyers. 

Of course, a christian man had no chance left 
but to write a history and lay it before the world in 
its real nature, and Mr. Wise ought to have been 
wise enough to see the point where that cousining 
ring was drifting to. I said, "Johnny, what would 
you think of brethren who would go beyond the 
gospel of the 18th chapter of Matthew, where it 
says, "take one or two with you, so every word 
may be established. " I told him that happened in 
our church, even with me. Why, the Scriptures 
are plain on that. I told him that somcwere called 
by me to go and see a member, and they went out 
of their way to bring a young preacher along ; and 
he said, "I hope you have not got any brethren 



JACOB ULERY. 165 



who would violate the rule of the 18th chapter of 
Matthew — such a plain gospel." I told him that 
there were two of the old bishops who brought the 
tonguey young prophet along some times. I call 
him the devil's hired hand. I told Mr. Wise that I 
sent Bingaman home; that he made himself en- 
tirely too useful. Johnny Wise may be a good 
man, we hope he is, but we really don't know 
whether he is or not. What I have written is not 
to try and hurt him, but only to wake him and 
others up to our christian duties. Let us all take 
warning, and take heed to the laws of God. Let 
men say what they will. A hint to the wise is suf- 
ficient. Judge ye what I say. 

Jacob Ulery 

is an old bishop belonging to the Okaw Church. 
He always seemed to be sympathizing with me and 
my family. I don't think he felt like taking a stand 
against the persecuted man. He seemed to want 
to stand in this fight between right and wrong. I 
called on him to go with me to the boy preacher to 
try and set him right according to the 18th chapter 
of Matthew, but he refused to go with me. He 
made the excuse that he was lame, that he had a 



1 66 HUMAN DEPRA VIT Y. 

sore foot. He was out hauling shock corn at the 
time he made the excuse. I expect he thought a 
poor excuse was better that none. But we are not 
excused from our christian duties, according to my 
understanding, as we can read, " he that knoweth 
to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." — 
James iv-17. Read and meditate. 



DANIEL VENAMAN 



I will now expose an elder who lives in Macoupin 
county, Illinois, Daniel Venaman. He is a very 
active and prominent man in the Dunkard brother- 
hood, and is now out in Caliornia ; I suppose partly 
on that mission, but I think more on a speculation 
for himself. He is amply rich in worldly trash, as 
his old colaborer, Johnny Metzker, one of Vena- 
man's old cronies, says. They have traveled together 
a great deal, trying to do great work to be seen of 
men. They have solicited and begged enough 
money to buy a valuable piece of ground in the city 
of St. Louis, Mo., on which ^to erect a meeting 
house. 



DANIEL VENAMAJX. 167 

Over the vast brotherhood the interest was 
reported good for building up a church before the 
meeting house was erected, but soon after the house 
was built at a great cost, the interest began to 
decrease, and it is reported that at the present time 
there are only a few members there and no preacher. 
Their enterprise has been a failure, and there must 
be a cause for the failure. For one, we think the 
right man was not at the good work. It appears to 
me that the men who took such great interest in 
the enterprise were merely working it up to be seen 
and heard of through the' papers, and to be elevated 
by men for doing some great act of church building. 
They made a great noise about it at the time, but 
since then they have taken action to have the house 
sold at the district meeting at Virden, 111. There 
they decided that it was a complete failure, and con- 
cluded to sell the property. We think they have 
not builded their house on the solid rock, and it 
fell. Thus, if they don't change their evil ways, 
their spiritual house will be a worse failure than 
their St. Louis house. 

Venaman is like Calvert and others ; they are 
guilty of the blood of this persecuted family, be- 
cause they helped to hide the mischief of their good 



168 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

old friend Metzker. No doubt but he will deny my 
assertions. He will certainly get himself deeper 
into the mire by denying the truth, for he is preach- 
ing in the pulpit that the truth shall make us free. 
He is not ignorant of the Scriptures' plain teach- 
ings, that a liar shall not enter the kingdom of 
heaven. And these are the kind of birds he was 
trying to save from being killed, and he went hand 
in hand with the old king bird. At the kings's call 
he was ready to obey him, and to do his wishes , he 
came and held a love feast in disguise, and * under 
quiet deception he stood about in the same line of 
conduct towards me as did Jerry Calvert, and Cal- 
vert was caught in the untruths, and we think if 
Venaman will come up a few more times to Cerro 
Gordo at their bidding, to partake, with them liars, 
that he will likely become just as expert in telling 
lies as they are. They got so expert in that lying 
business that they have sworn to lies right in open 
court. 

Some years ago I went to Venaman's house, 
and stayed all night with him. I laid my grievances 
before him, read a number of letters to him that 
were written to J. Metzker, and he seemed to hear 
me read the letters with some patience and sympa- 



DANIEL V EN AM AN. 169 

thy. But, alas, he soon turned his coat, and not 
only that, but he gave me the cold shoulder. I 
then wrote him many letters, asking him to do his 
duty, and explaining my persecution in a way that 
he could not doubt the truth and believe a lie. I 
have referred the evangelist to many passages of 
Scripture to meditate upon, but he acted like one 
dumb and stupid, because he was bound to hide 
such heathenish acts. No doubt he believed, and 
does believe, all I said and wrote to him, for he 
dare not say I am a liar. But he had an object in 
view, and he would rather believe a combined set 
of liars than to believe me that old Johnny Metzker 
said, " Chris., I believe you are a Christian." 

He is not willing to respond to the truths, and 
he took an active part to protect that cousining 
ring of Cerro Gordo. I have repeatedly written to 
him to try and save himself, and drop that stinking 
cousining ring. I warned him that he was even 
eating with those combined evil men and women. 
I told him that he should not encourage them to eat 
and drink unworthily, but he turned a deaf ear to 
my pleadings, and, of course, according to my un- 
derstanding, he is as deep in the mire as are the 
cousining ring, because he rings in with them. I 



170 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

wonder what he will say before an intelligent com- 
munity. Some persons, who belong to other de- 
nominations, have intimated that we have no intel- 
ligent people in the Dunkard Church ; and some 
say, " Damn your Dunkards, we have seen enough 
of their supertitious ignorance in the court-room." 
Well, those are facts I do not deny. I say, let the 
sword cut whom it may. Right, and not might, 
will prevail. 

I asked Venaman to send my letters back to me, 
but he did not do it. He wants to lay them before 
a committee. If the church does not investigate 
this act of persecution, then we might just as well 
say they are all ignoramuses, not worthy of notice. 
But I still have a better opinion of the Dunkard 
fraternity, and will contend for all that is honest 
and right according to the Divine Word of God and 
our Saviour's teachings. Venaman is the fifth 
wheel in this hypocritical vehicle at Cerro Gordo. 
He did himself injustice to save a cousining ring 
from the effects of a heathenish act of persecution. 

I asked of him and his colaborers a permit to 
stand before their whole church to lay my grievances 
before them, and make my request known to the 
church. I have asked their official board to let me 



DANIEL VENAMAN. 171 

talk half an hour to their congregation, and then I 
would leave it to their consciences whether or not 
they should appoint an investigation to see if I 
stated the truth to them, but was denied the privi- 
lege to make my plea, and I think if Venaman had 
not been there I would have had my request granted, 
but I think he stood in the door with his broad horns 
of authority. He is a man of wonderful influence, 
and being wealthy he wants to be looked up to. 
I shall honor him for just what he is worth, not in 
dollars and cents, but in his hypocritical conduct. 
It is with him as with J. Metzker, and Calvert, and 
George Cripe, and some other humbugs. They 
preach humility, honesty, meekness, and equality in 
the pulpit, but they don't practice it. They can 
bind heavy burdens on others, and have a good deal 
to say about the evil of using tobacco and other 
various habits of human weakness. He is one of 
the kind that "strain at a gnat and swallow a 
camel." He might just as well try to swallow a 
camel, as to try and screen such heathenism from 
the effects of their dirty scrapes. 

I want the good, thinking people of the Dunkard 
Church to mark that man, and not attempt to select 
him on a committee to settle this matter. I shall 



172 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

object to him for all time to come. Such a man as 
he cannot settle my business for me under any con- 
sideration. Col. Gibson, his colaborer, would have 
been willing to do something for this persecuted 
family ; but, no, he was hushed up because he was 
not so high in authority, so he had a timidness of 
doing his full duty, as he wished to do. I have 
reason to believe that the colonel and his wife have 
suffered with this persecuted brother and his dear 
family. He answered some of my letters, and they 
showed sympathy, while others tried to see how 
cold and indifferent they could appear against me. 
A great many will deny this, but we must not for- 
get that actions speak louder than words. The 
brethren who read this book will see at once that 
nothing short of a strong committee can save this 
Dunkard fraternity from being lost in almost heath- 
enish darkness, but, if properly managed, it will 
have a tendency to purify and strengthen it. 
Gibson answered a letter in this wise : 

"Dear Friend: — In answer to your letter you have 
our sympathy in your troubles, but how to remedy them 
is the trouble with me now at this time, but I will seek 
counsel in this matter and let you know in the future. 
Stop lawing with them, for it is like one man lawing with 



DANIEL VENAMAN. 173 

a railroad company. They will break you up, and you 
will have to quit." 

He surely knew that it was their aim to break 
me up. 

A card from Mr. Eby : 

"C. Girl: Dear Friend — Your letter and card are 
at hand, but I decline taking any part in your case what- 
ever, as I am too far away to do anything satisfactory, 
and I hope you will excuse me." 

I will have to excuse him as I cannot do any- 
better, only I will expose his conduct towards me 
afterwards. He had had a great many letters from 
me. He abused me shamefully at the annual con- 
ference several years ago at Darke county, Ohio. 
I went to him several times to ask questions, in or- 
der to get some secrets out of him, for I knew that 
he had heard some slanderous rumors about me, 
and I wanted to drive some things out, and I did 
drive something out, for I got him mad and then it 
came in rough style. I walked up pretty close to 
him, and asked him where my sister lived, as he 
knew. He said my sister was married to a Mr. 
Rhodes, and had moved to Southern California. 
Then I tried to show him how they had endeavored 



174 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

to overpower her when she was among the cousin- 
ing ring at Cerro Gordo, by lying to her and by 
bringing all kinds of slanderous reports and lies 
against me, and even got her before a muddle-head 
of a Dunkard, and there she gave it as her opinion 
that her brother Chris, was insane. But he was 
not willing to hear my truths any further, and gave 
me a hunch and said, " I don't want to hear you, I 
don't believe you ; I don't want to throw pearls be- 
fore swine." 

All that saved him from getting a slap in the 
face, was my slowness of anger, and the fear of 
arrest. I walked away before my anger came to 
me, and the farther I walked the madder I got. I 
took a circle around the ground and walked right 
back to the impertinent bishop, and I asked him 
whether he meant to call me a swine. He kept 
silent, and I told him that I demanded an answer, 
and he said, "I did not say you were a swine. I 
said I did not want to throw pearls before swine." 
He is one of the committee that was chosen on my 
first church trial. I heard old Johnny talked to 
them, as if he was telling them how to decide 
the case. What business had he go to and call 
them aside, and talk to that committee before they 



DANIEL VENAMAN. 175 

made their decision ? He was the uncle of the 
heirs, and no doubt he got a percentage to inter- 
cede for them. Perhaps Eby does not like me be- 
cause I brought the truth to bear on that committee. 
I don't owe him anything financially, but I owe him 
something religiously. I owe him good admonition, 
and will say to him to provide things honestly before 
God and man. Without these good gospel teach- 
ings it is impossible to please God. They under- 
took to screen an old king among them from being 
exposed to the world, and I must expose such com- 
bined devilment, or be separated from my dear 
family. 

Just think, those men will go into the pulpit and 
preach that the truth must be told, and then they 
will try to hide the truth ; aye, even do worse, they 
will lie in order to hide the truth. For they, 
being ignorant of God's righteousness and going 
about to establish their own righteousness, have not 
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of 
God, but to Israel he says, "All day long have I 
stretched forth my hand unto a disobedient and 
gainsaying people. 



176 HUMAN BEPRA VITY. 



TRUST IN GOD. 

Courage brother! do not stumble, 

Though thy path be dark as night; 
There's a star to guide the humble — 

Trust in God and do the right. 
Though the road be long and dreary, 

And the end be out of sight: 
Foot it bravely, strong or weary — 

Trust in God and do the right. 

Some will hate thee, some will love thee, 

Some will flatter, some will slight: 
Cease from man, and look above thee; 

Trust in God and do the right. 
Simple rule and safest guiding — 

Inward peace and shining light — 
Star upon our path abiding — 

Trust in God and do the right. 



SOLOMON SHIVELY. 



I will not spare one who was a traitor and a 
deceitful outlaw, a son of the treacherous deacon, 
Shively, who has several times been expelled from 
the Dunkard Church. I shall give the names of 
all such traitors. He is called Solomon Shively. 
He is a chip off the old block. The outlaw seemed 
to sympathize with me for gain. He undertook to 
make me believe that he was a great friend of mine, 
and he helped me to make plans how to defeat my 
antagonists. He was good to me to get a chance 
to skin me out of fifty dollars. I had confidence 
enough in him to loan him that amount, thinking 
by his talk, that he had reformed his bad habits, 
and become an honest man ; but alas, the last state 
of such a man is worse than the beginning. As 
soon as he had the money he began to turn the 
cold shoulder to me, and at my court trials he min- 
gled right in with that cousining ring, and even got 
very familiar with them, and, especially in the court 

• 12 



178 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

room, he would hang around them, and they were 
glad to have him assist them in their hellish perse- 
cution, and he was very anxious to testify. 

In his conversation with me he called them a 
set of hypocrites, and dishonest. He came down 
on his grandfather, J. Metzker. He condemned 
even the whole fraternity, and he declared he would 
help me all he could. He promised to go out and 
talk to my son-in-law and my children. I knew 
that he had been put in jail for obtaining money 
under false pretences, but I was like a drowning 
man in my persecution, catching at straws. But 
he was worse than a straw. He was what I would 
call a turncoat and a rebel. He was like J. M. 
Rainey. He favored them, and of all the devilish 
testimony produced, he laid all the rest of the 
cousining ring in the shade. He beat them all. I 
think he was coaxed to come and swear that he 
would not believe me under oath, but Lawyer 
Jones has pretty nearly used him up. He exposed 
his devilment, and they came near impeaching his 
testimony, and we think if he had got his just dues, 
he would not have escaped the penitentiary. But 
he did the cousining ring a great favor. We think 
they got him to do the rough swearing to help 



80L0M0N SHIVELY. 179 

them hide their mischief. Before, he would not 
mingle with them, and they also did not want any- 
thing to do with him. Since those law suits, they 
have become very sociable together, and he moved 
among them at Cerro Gordo. I have heard some 
talk that they will take him into the church again. 
We think that is the place for him, right in that 
cousining ring. He can do some good swearing 
for them when they get in trouble. I hope they 
will put him in office, for they owe him some honor 
for giving them such a big lift with his evidence so 
nicely in their favor. I wrote him a letter, and told 
him of his treacherous actions, and of his meanness 
in betraying me for self gain. I think I told him 
that he was as ornery as a dog for betraying a per- 
secuted man. He sent me the following lines : 

"Decatur, III., June 28, 1885. 
"Mr. C. Girl: Sir — You certainly missed your aim 
when you tried to scare me. As for doing like a dog, the 
least you say the longer you will be able to lie down. I 
would not stoop so low as to strike you, but I will turn 
you over my knee and slap you till you whine like a hound 
pup. Now make no more threats but go to work like a 
man. As for trouble, I assure you, you will get your 
share." 



180 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

Well, as for trouble, he had it in his head to 
make me trouble, to stand in with such a set of 
rascals to give in such evidence. It is enough to 
make the best saint tremble to hear it fall from the 
lips of an outlaw and a treacherous robber. 

The time myself and daughter Ida took a trip 
to Florida, in the year 1885, he got the fifty dollars. 
I also gave him a note of four dollars and fifty cents 
for collection, and the man told me that he offered 
him the note if he paid him, I think he said, one 
dollar. He was hard up all the time for money, 
and he came to me at various times asking for just 
one dollar. He got, perhaps, at various times, 
three or four dollars to buy provisions for his family. 
I think he gambled some of it away instead of pay- 
ing his grocery bills. Brock Deardorff told me that 
Solomon said they could get some money out of the 
old man anyhow, and he was right about that. They 
succeeded, but they did not obtain it fair and 
honestly, and it will be a hindrance to their future 
prosperity. That is what Deardorff told me, and 
the people in Decatur know that Deardorff would 
not suffer himself to be caught in a lie. He would 
rather tell^some more, and try to get out of one in 
that way. Old Bishop Wagner says, " that a man 
that lied once would lie again when he was pinched. " 






SOLOMON SHIVELY. 181 

The trouble with Solly Shively is, he was not 
raised right. His parents showed too much decep- 
tion in their christian professors. They were wor- 
shipping the critter instead of the Creator, and there 
are a good many more people in and about that 
cousining ring who are in the same way, and they 
have surely run their gospel ship aground. It is 
most astonishing, that with all the intelligence and 
the many christian privileges we have in this nine- 
teenth century, to see intelligent men and women 
worshipping their preachers instead of their Crea- 
tor. My dear fellow citizens, we have to look up 
higher than man to be saved. What is poor mor- 
tal man ? Let us wake up to our christian duty : 
— first to our moral duty, and then we have only a 
step or two to make to become Christians. " He 
that hath ears, let him hear," and "harden not 
your hearts," said He unto His disciples. It is im- 
possible but that offences will come, but woe unto 
him by whom they cometh. " It were better for 
him if a millstone were hanged about his neck and 
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." 

A man would be in a nice fix if he was cast into 
the sea, or even into a fish pond, and then told to 
swim or drown. The Lord will help us swim if we 



182 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

will make the effort according to our Saviour's 
teachings. He is ever near; never fear. He will 
help in all times of need. Don't forget that, my 
dear reader. Knowing this, the trying of your 
faith worketh patiently. May God help the hypo- 
crites to turn from their evil ways. Fellow citizens, 
let us look to our eternal interest, and be blest for- 
ever. 

''We may write our names in books, we may trace them 

in the sand, 
We may chisel them in marble with a firm and skillful 

hand, 
But, my friends, there is a book, filled with leaves of 

purest white, 
Where no names are ever sullied, but are ever pure and 

bright." 

There are many names written ; may they all be 
written in the book of life. 






BISHOP CALVERT. 



I will now expose another bishop, Mr. Calvert, 
who was brought to Cerro Gordo from the State of 
Indiana. I have known him for many years. A 
few years ago he was called to Cerro Gordo to hold 
a revival meeting. He is what the Scriptures call 
a hireling. We understood they paid him two dol- 
lars a day to preach for them. He did some pretty 
loud hollering and blowing and bragging, so much 
so that the people got tired of hearing him ; even 
some of his own members got disgusted with him. 
As soon as I heard that Jessy Calvert was up in 
Cerro Gordo I wrote him a letter, asking him to 
come to Decatur to see us, and telling him that I 
had some important business with him. I told him 
the official board of the Cerro Gordo Church was 
very much out of order, and the first thing to do 
would be to get that board in order with some of 
its lay members, and then hold a good revival meet- 
ing, otherwise he could do no good. I told him 



184 m HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

that unless that was done that it would be merely 
mocking ; but Calvert took no heed of my good and 
wholesome counsel, but he slashed away careless, 
and made himself bold in condemning other de- 
nominations, and he soon got into deep trouble 
with the Methodist and other churches. It seemed 
as though he tried to condemn everything but the 
Dunkards. He soon got caught in lies, and they 
denounced him a public liar, and proved it in the 
Illiopolis papers, but he went on to try and convert 
souls to God. 

He would have likely got a short reproof for not 
answering my letters, but he would not let me get 
near him, He seemed to shy away from me as 
though I was a pickpocket or a hypocrite. It seemed 
as though I was not to touch the hem of his gar- 
ment. I came home very much discouraged, think- 
ing to myself, here is another treacherous devil to 
fight. I saw the very mischief and evil spirit in 
that man. I came home and opened the Bible, and 
it seemed that the first chapter my eyes met was 
encouraging for a persecuted man. I would com- 
mence to fight a new devil, let him present himself 
in any shape. I could find in one chapter of the 
Bible more, encouragement than all the preachers 



BISHOP CALVERT. 185 

could or would give me. I wrote another letter to 
Calvert and copied it in order to expose him. With 
his loud talk and excitement to try and scare people 
to join the Dunkard's Church, he succeeded in get- 
ting a few young converts. He blowed around 
there for several weeks, and then he went, slinking 
away like a thief in the night. His treacherous 
actions gave him to understand that I would expose 
him in my history. We will publish some of my 
admonitions to him in the latter part of this book. 
I went the second time to see him, and hap- 
pened to meet him on the sidewalk. He was alone, 
going to the meeting house to fill an appointment. 
He was coming from the east, and I was coming 
from the north to meet him at the crossing, but he 
passed by ahead of me. I hailed to him but he 
did not stop. I hailed to him the second time, and 
then he stopped, but not long enought to have a 
talk. I reached out my hand and said, " Calvert, 
do you know me?" He said, no, he did not. I 
introduced myself to him in this way, " I am this 
persecuted Chris. Girl." " O, yes, I have heard of 
you," and he walked on. He would not stop to 
talk with me. In front of the meeting house stood 
the old king of the cousining ring and his crowd. 



186 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

I told them that they were counseling for devilment ; 
that " birds of a feather flock together." 

See Ephesians, fifth chapter, sixth and seventh 
verses : 

" Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because 
of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children 
of disobedience. 

" And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of 
darkness, but rather reprove them." 

Also, II Timothy, chapter third, verses first and 
second : 

" This know also, that in the last days perilous times 
shall come. 

" For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, 
boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, 
unthankful, unholy." 

Here the reader will see that God will not suffer 
us to be persecuted more than we are able to bear. 
Oh ! the evil and devilment there is in those bishops, 
who are standing in the pulpit, assuring the public 
that God is an allwise being, and knows the 
very intent of the human heart. It does seem that 
God had sent them a delusion, and made them 
believe a lie and be damned. Shall we, as a chris- 






BISHOP CALVERT. 187 

tian people, suffer the devil to come behind the 
pulpit to tell us the way to heaven ? Have we not 
enought before us in print to make us wise unto 
salvation ? 

Mr. Calvert and I met after he was caught in 
the untruths. We went to a meeting in Darke 
county, Ohio. I told him, before the editors of 
" The Gospel Messenger, " the Dunkard paper, 
that he was caught in a lie out in Cerro Gordo, by 
a Methodist preacher, Mr. Reasnor. He made no 
reply, but walked away, knowing that the truth was 
staring him in the face. He could not bear the 
pressure and sneaked off. It was quite an under- 
taking for me to boldly expose him as a liar before 
those editors. My dear readers, it was all I could 
do to muster up courage to reprove him for his 
former conduct. It seemed a necessity on my part 
to stand up to the work that was before me. I 
would have rather stepped up to that old bishop 
and said, " How do you do, Brother Calvert," and 
had a social talk with him ; but he denied me and 
said he did not know me. It was an untruth, for I 
had known him ten or twelve ^years. In order to 
excuse myself to those editors, I said, " Brothers, 
to prove to you the assertions I have made against 
Calvert are true, you can read this," and I handed 



188 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

them the papers containing the proof. And still 
that man had the boldness to come back to Cerro 
Gordo to hold a revival meeting, the next fall, but 
a majority of the better thinking members would 
not go to hear him ; he was looked upon as a hum- 
bug. As he only got the support from that cousin- 
ing ring there was no life in their meetings. A 
drag and a dead weight of sin hung about them, 
because they have transgressed the laws of God, 
and have eaten and drunken unworthily to hide 
their deception from the eyes of the world. Oh, 
what mockery I have seen for many years. May 
God be merciful to the hypocrites and turn them 
from their evil ways. There are many who are 
worshipping idols instead of their Creator. I hope 
and trust that this volume may be the means of 
turning many to examine themselves and see 
whether they are serving the true and living God, 
and not man, who is made of the dust of the earth. 
What I have said about Mr. Calvert is the truth, 
and will stand when heaven and earth shall pass 
away. I hope, therefore, that he and many others 
may accept the truth and repent from their evil 
ways before it is forever too late. Remember that 
God is not to be mocked. What we sow, that shall 
we reap. I have no malice toward him ; God forbid. 



ELDER MILLER. 



I will now proceed to speak of Robert Miller. 
He has had ample warning years ago from me con- 
cerning his exposure in my history. I will not spare 
one, not because I hate them, but for the love and 
good that is left in the church, and for our admoni- 
tion to be waked up to our Christian duty before it 
is forever too late. This thing of pleading ignor- 
k ance as an excuse for a failure to perform our 
christian duty, will not do, for the Saviour has 
made it so plain that " a way-faring man, though a 
fool, may not err therein." How, then, shall a man 
err in such a plain case of persecution as this before 
us. How a lawyer and a preacher like Robert 
Miller, who lives in North Manchester, Indiana, 
one who studied law, and I suppose, practiced in 
the civil courts of justice, but who has abandoned 
the practice and become a Dunkard preacher, and a 
very active minister in advocating the cause of 



190 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Christ and his kingdom, — how, I say, he can 
shrink from his duty in such a plain case of perse- 
cution as this, is more than I can understand. I 
will refer him and others to the tenth chapter of I 
Corinthians : 

I. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be 
ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, 
and all passed through the sea. 

5. But with many of them God was not well pleased : 
for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 

9. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also 
tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 

II. Now all these things happened unto them for 
ensamples ; and they are written for our admonition, upon 
whom the ends of the world are come. 

12. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take 
heed lest he fall. 

Brethren these simple passages have a meaning 
In them. 

Well, we will give the facts in this particular 
case. We will show that there was a great neglect 
of duty, and the Scripture tells us that "he who 
knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is 
sin." I have drank of the bitter cup of persecution 
for twelve or thirteen years. I have been witness 
of the unfair ruling from time to time, and it has 



ELDER MILLER. 191 



gone on from bad to worse. I tried to correct it by 
moral suasion, and, as I thought, according to the 
rules laid down in the Blessed Word of God to the 
best of my understanding, and according to the 
Dunkard discipline, but was overpowered by the 
many evil doers, who deviated from the plain com- 
mandments laid down for our instruction and our 
correction. Many ol the brethren whom I called 
upon pretended they were ignorant of the persecu- 
tion which has been going on for the last twelve or 
thirteen years, and I will be very free to name them. 
I will now give the proceedings of the first 
trouble I ever had with the official board of the 
Cerro Gordo Church. I bought a farm of one of 
the old preachers. In giving the notes one of them 
was written by mistake at ten instead of six per 
cent., which made a difference of eighty dollars at 
the end of four years. The mistake was over- 
looked, perhaps, by both parties. When I dis- 
covered the mistake I asked two of the heirs what 
we would do about it. They told me to go and pay 
it, and they would pay the eighty dollars back to 
me. I paid the note in full, but the heirs refused 
to pay back the eighty dollars. They were two 
deacons in the church. It is also as well to men- 



192 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

tion that they were nephews of old Johnny Metzker, 
and were of the elect official board of the church. 
Well, as they refused to do what they had promised 
I brought the matter before the church, and the 
matter came before the council for investigation. 
The official board stuck their heads together and 
proposed to me that the matter should be settled 
by a committee of three strong brethren. I objected 
to their plan for various reasons, but some of the 
strange brethren were sent to me to persuade me 
to yield to their plan of leaving it in a com- 
mittee's hand. After much persuasion I yielded to 
their wishes, and the following brethern were ap- 
pointed : Henry Davy, of Ohio, Enoch Ely, of 
Stephenson county, Illinois, and R. H. Miller, of 
North Manchester, Indiana. Old Johnny Metzker 
had a good deal to say to them before they retired 
to decide this important matter. They decided 
against me, and I lost my eighty dollars, although 
I proved to the committee that the bishop had sold 
his land to me at six per cent, interest on the notes. 
The heirs acknowledged that they had agreed to 
pay the eighty dollars back, but they added an "if" 
to it. They said, "We said 'if we owe it." At 
the time they made the promise to me they had no 



ELDER MILLER. 193 



"if" in it, but said, " You pay it to the executor, 
and we will pay it back to you." I contend that 
the committee had been induced in some way, per- 
haps not willfully, but by some wrong influence, to 
decide wrong in that matter, and I suppose they 
would not dare to say that they could judge prop- 
erly every time. The wrong they have done is not 
in giving a wrong decision, but in letting themselves 
be overpowered by evil influences against their 
better judgments, and .thus they are carried along 
to this day, and are giving their influence on Satan's 
side ; and by so doing they are tearing down 
instead of building up. In trying to save one Judas 
from being exposed, they may drive and keep 
thousands out of the church ; and it is astonishing 
to see a man like Robert Miller yield to such an 
influence. He has always treated me with respect 
when we have met, but I have a complaint to make 
against him, not to injure him, but to instruct him, 
and if he is as willing to take counsel as he is to 
give it, we think he will take the admonition in a 
christian way, together with the reproof and warn- 
ing we have given him from time to time. 

I met him in Darke county, Ohio, at the annual 
conference. I gave him rather a sharp reproof for 

13 



194 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

not answering my many letters of appeal for help. 
Mr. Miller tried to make a satisfactory apology, but 
did not succeed. He said : " I told my wife that I 
ought to answer Girl's letters." Ought to ! Is that 
binding? According to his own preaching it is 
binding. I was willing to let him off with his 
apology, but I made a renewed request, and even 
sent him stamps to send my letters back to me to 
use them in my history, but he sent neither stamps 
nor letters. We wonder if he pays his debts with 
promises and apologies. I guess he will say: "'I 
ought to correspond with that persecuted brother, 
but I did not do it ; and I ought to be impartial but 
I was overpowered by my colaborers to be willing 
to favor them in their sinful ways, but I will make 
that all right in making apologies when the time 
comes to do so." 

I know who I am writing to, and I will not 
make my remarks very lengthy, but will say to R. 
H. Miller, and whom it may concern, that God is 
no respector of persons. Please turn to the twelfth 
chapter of I Corinthians: 

"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not 
have you ignorant. 

"That there should be no schism in the body; -but 
that the members should have the same care one for an- 
other." 



JACOB REPLOGLE. 



Jacob Replogle is a man that had lots of trouble 
in the Dunkard Church. He had many trials be- 
fore the official board, and also the different pre- 
cincts of the church, and he had a good many before 
old Johnny Metzker, and he always came out beat 
and dissatisfied, and complained bitterly about the 
unfairness in their ruling in church matters. He 
said that Johnny Metzker was not fit to rule a 
a church ; that old Johnny was not childish, but 
devilish, and he called Jacob Wagner hard names. 
He was formerly a deacon of the Okaw Church, and 
he had a great many hard things to say against the 
official board of that church. 

I happened to have some dealings with him, 
and that is by far the best way to find out what is 
in a man or a woman. I bought a house and lot of 
him in the town of Cerro Gordo, and he agreed to 
furnish me a new abstract in case I wanted to sell 
the property. He gave me an old abstract that 



196 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

had been made out with some other lots before. 
They were separated a half block, and he came to 
get the abstract to see about them. He kept the 
abstract and went off to Kansas, and while he was 
gone Mr. Clifton made me an offer for the house 
and lot. I think old Johnny Metzker put him up 
to buy me out. I was close to him, and he wanted 
to get me away as he did not want to live close 
neighbor to a christian. Well, I had to have an 
abstract or lose my sale, as Clifton said he would 
not take the property unless he had a new abstract, 
which Replogle agreed to furnish as soon as it was 
needed, but he refused to do as he had promised, 
and then denied that he had agreed to do it. There 
being so many transfers to make out in the abstract 
it cost over thirteen dollars. I thought that if he 
would not pay what he agreed to I would sue him. 
He told|me to crack ahead, and he beat me on the 
same ground Jas the cousining ring, with bad evi- 
dence. There ^is no use for me to start a law suit 
with any of that cousining ring, as they will ring 
me out every time. They can swear harder under 
oath than^what my conscience will allow me to, and 
still they want|to be careful that they don't break 
their baptismal vow, not to swear at all, but to af- 



JACOB REPLOQLE. 197 

firm, which is just as binding as to take an oath. 
Which is the worst : to swear to a lie, or affirm to 
a lie ? Some will say it is as broad as it is long, 
but there is a good deal of difference in affirming 
to a lie and swearing to the truth. May God for- 
give them as I am willing to forgive them. It is 
getting to be fashionable to get on the witness 
stand and rattle off a whole lot of lies before a judge 
and jury. I am treating of facts that cannot be de- 
nied by any good, honest man without putting a 
mark of dishonesty on his character. Our Ameri- 
can people will have to do better in moral principles, 
as well as in christian principles, or they will be 
laid in the shade by some of the so-called heathens 
who have been worshipping idols. They are im- 
proving while we are losing ground. He that hath 
ears let him hear and understand, 



WILLIAM GIRL AND OTHERS. 



I will now give to the reader a transaction I had 
with my son William. I at one time borrowed 
some money of him, and gave him my note the 
same as to a stranger. Now to show that my 
children were under the influence of those ungodly 
men. When that boy wanted his money I told 
him to come out and tell me what those men were 
trying to put him against his parents for, and for 
what purpose, and I would pay him his money, but 
he would not tell on them, and got mad, and 
threatened to sue me on the note. I told him to 
sue me, and then I would bring in an offset against 
him as he was of age, as I had boarded him and a 
horse for about five months each winter for three 
winters. But he chose the opposite side rather 
than be obedient to his parents, and he went to 
'Squire Nickey, that old flat-headed Dutchman, and 
he gave him counsel, and not knowing enough 
about law to know whether I could bring an offset 



WILLIAM GIRL AND OTHERS. 199 

against my son, he goes to another 'Squire for ad- 
vice in the matter, who told him he did not know 
whether he could or not, and then Nickey went 
home and planned it for my son to let his (Nickey's) 
son have the note for collection, and thus probably 
avoid the offset; but before they sued the note I 
offered to pay my son, when he told me he did not 
have the note, that 'Squire Nickey's son had it. I 
told him to go and get it, for I did not want to go 
there for it, as they had treated me mean and dis- 
respectfully already, and it was my wish to avoid 
them ; but no, he would not make any attempt to 
get the note or take the money. I and my other 
son were going on a visit to Ohio, and they waited 
until the day we started on our visit, and then sued 
me, and by the time I returned they had the suit, 
costs, and all against me, and I paid it like a man. 
Why did they not sue me when I was here to de- 
fend myself? It must have been because they 
thought the way they planned it was cunning and 
smart, but it showed their hated, vicious, ignorant 
cowardly conduct against me. It appears that the 
more sinful and wicked they are, the more religion 
they claimed to have. How can a man think oth- 
erwise when they will go and confess God in wor- 



200 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

ship and in prayer, and then go and participate in 
such hellish, dartardly actions as this. There is no 
religion in them ; they only use that for a cloak to 
hide their hellish crimes, for it is in the very mar- 
row of their bones to be hypocrites, and it takes 
more than feet washing to cleanse them. They 
would have to be put in a vat and boiled and 
soaked, and then put through a purifying process 
for about a year before they would be agreeable to 
man and society. 

Now, remember, that God in His infinite mercy 
says, repent and believe and you shall be saved. 
Dear brethren, you cannot be saved by mockery, 
which you practice, for God says, " I am not to be 
mocked." I have plead for my children to discard 
all evil influences, and take my good, fatherly coun- 
sel, and I assured them that everything would be 
for their good. I wanted them to be good and 
happy children, and never be the cause of tears 
trickling down their parents' cheeks. I hope, by 
the grace of God, they may finally be saved. 



SIMON NICKEY. 



I will now begin this glad new year of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, 1888, with an account of the rotten- 
ness of that cousining ring of Cerro Gordo, 111., by 
giving the testimony of Simon Nickey against me. 
It is an evident fact that Simon Nickey was selected 
as my guardian in case they succeeded in getting 
me off to the insane asylum. Of course he denied 
the assertion to me. He has taken active part with 
that ring of conspirators in helping to prosecute me, 
and I was told that 'Squire Nickey went to Mr. 
Sowarn and tried to persuade him to go to town 
with him, and see whether they could not accom- 
plish the feat of sending me to the asylum, but 
Sowarn refused, for he well knew that I was com- 
petent to take care of my little property, and the 
Irishman did wisely to keep out of that unfair and 
treacherous piece of business. 

The 'Squire always tried to make me believe 
that he stood .neutral in this conspiracy. I went to 






202 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

his house one Sunday morning to have a talk with 
my son William. I tried for a long time to get the 
secret conspiracy out of that son, but all in vain. I 
tried every possible way to induce him to come out 
and tell on Bingaman, C. Funk and a few others, 
but he was forbidden to tell on them. Finally 
the boy went away from me and started for the 
house. We were in the barn. Simon came out 
and I had a long talk with him, laid my grievances 
before him, and asked him many questions concern- 
ing the matter, and he questioned me. I answered 
him promptly, but he was slow in answering me. 
In the winding up of our conversation I told Mr. 
Nickey that he had a way to get those secrets out 
of the boy, and he asked me in what way. I told 
him to mob him and scare them out of him. " Why, 
you wouldn't hang or hurt him? " said he. I said 
no, only scare him, and Nickey testified that I only 
wanted to scare him. I told the same thing to Mr. 
Phillips. 

They arrested me the second time, and put me 
in prison. The first arrest was made July 17, 1883, 
and the second arrest was caused by my confiding 
my plans of scaring the boy to S. Nickey and J. 
Phillips, supposing them to be confidential friends. 



SIMON NICEEY. 203 



I have often visited J. Phillips and have explained 
my troubles to him and his wife, and they seemed 
to sympathize deeply with me and my family. I 
read several letters to them that I wrote to the 
official board of the Cerro Gordo Church, but they 
betrayed me and became workers against me. As 
soon as I had laid my plans to try and scare the 
secret out my son, J. Phillips went and informed 
him of the threat I made, and that started the boy's 
malice afresh, and by counselors, such as 'Squire 
Nickey, A. Bingaman and C. Funk, he was induced 
to have the second arrest made, and had me placed 
in jail. It was only by the persuasion of such evil- 
men that it was done, for Wolgamot and others tes- 
tified that the boy told them that he had never done 
anything in his life that he hated so bad as to have 
his father arrested. Mr. Wolgamot asked him who 
urged him to do it, and he said, Funk, Bingaman, 
and others. 

One day my son and C. Funk passed my house, 
I said to them, in a joking way, " are you going 
out to find a guardian for me," and they laughed, 
and C. Funk said: " That is what we are after." 
Sure enough that was their errand, and soon after 
the arrest followed by Sheriff Wetzel at my stable, 



204 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

where I was with my hired hands getting ready to 
go and make hay. The sheriff testified that I gave 
my hands orders how to do my work while I was 
absent. I then told him I was ready. I stepped 
into the buggy with the sheriff, he brought me to 
town, and I was landed in jail to await my trial. 
Sheriff Foster not being at home the deputy sheriff 
had me put in jail by the sheriff's orders. 

In a few days Sheriff Foster came home, and 
came into my room, conversed with me, and said 
" Mr. Girl, it is rather hot in this room/' The sun 
was shining in from the west through two large 
windows. He took me out of that room, and 
escorted me to a well furnished room down stairs, 
and told me to make myself at home. I laid down 
on the sofa to take a good rest, and at meal time I 
was invited to sit up to the family table. 

May God help us to turn from darkness into 
light, and not worship man, but the living light, is 
my prayer. It is not hard for the christian man to 
bear his burdens when his heart is washed in the 
blood of the Lamb. His christian hope keeps him 
strong in the faith of the Lord. 

I have contended with my fellow men in the 
church and family troubles with a zealous religious 






SIMON NIC KEY. 205 



feeling, and have tried to avoid all strife and 
malice, and exhorted everyone to do the same, 
but it seems as if the evil spirit's influence was on 
them, and that they courted and worshipped the 
devil instead of the divine truths of God, and it 
compels me to lay the facts before the people in the 
shape of a history, that all good thinking people 
may judge for themselves. 

I will now expose to the world a lot of profes- 
sing christian men in their hellish work, such as 
elders and deacons of the brotherhood. I will 
proceed with care to give the details correct, as 
they happened, endeavoring to lay the truth before 
the public, as we can read in the blessed Word of 
God, that the truth shall make us free, and we 
shall be free indeed. We American-born people 
want to sustain our rights, especially in religion. 
We want to be sure that we are right according to 
the Saviour's instructions, and then drive ahead 
although the devil stands at the door. The Rev. 
Sam Jones, in one of his sermons, says, "if a thing 
is right, fight for it, and fight on though you may 
feel sometimes that you are alone ; but fight on, 
and when the battle is over and the smoke is cleared 
away, you will see God and His angels, and good 
men and women standing around to cheer you." 



206 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Many have started in this religious warfare with 
such a determination, but soon something comes 
in their way, and they begin to murmur that the 
cross is getting too heavy to bear, and they get 
weak in their faith. They forget that Christ will 
help them to bear their cross, and that he will be 
with his people in their times of need. A back- 
sliding professor is, in my opinion, a great hindrance 
to the true principles of the christian religion. I 
once heard a pastor in Palatka, Florida, say in his 
sermon : " My friends, I don't want you to hold out, 
but hold on to God's promises, and he will finally 
come to your aid and fulfill his blessed promises. 
He says the believer in Christ shall not be tempted 
above what he is able to bear. Let us look to God 
for our help. He is ever near." 

" There is an eye that never sleeps beneath the wing of 

night; 
There is an ear that never shuts when sink the beams of 

night; 
There is an arm that never tires when human strength 

gives way; 
There is a love that never fails when earthly loves decay." 



REV. G. W. WILSON 



I will not confine myself entirely to Dunkards, 
as I have been badly treated by others. I will 
mention the Rev. G. W. Wilson, an evangelist, who 
presided over a revival of about three months' 
duration in Stap's chapel, at Decatur, 111., in the 
winter of 1887. He seemed to be a well-read man, 
and very ambitious in our Master's cause, and did 
all he could in the pulpit to convert sinners to the 
cause of Christ. I enjoyed his sermons at first and 
approved his work, for he labored hard to warm up 
those who became cold in the cause and put them 
in working condition. He did not spare them, and 
spoke very pointedly to them. He seemed to fol- 
low Paul's advice in II Timothy, fourth chapter, 
second and third verses : 

"Preach the word; be instant in season and out of 
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and 
doctrine. 

" For the time will come when they will not endure 
sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap 
to themselves teachers; having itching ears." 



208 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

I think he took Paul's advice, for he preached 
the word to saint and sinner. He created a great 
interest among the members, and they became so 
happy they could not contain themselves, and they 
gave praises to God. I felt that Mr. Wilson was a 
good christian, and I thought it would be of much 
strength to me to have a talk with him, and pour 
out my troubled soul to him. I thought he could 
give me good advice, and I asked a friend to inter- 
cede for me. He did so, and I asked him to come 
and see me at my office, and have a christianlike 
talk with me. I thought if he wanted to do so 
much good he would surely come and talk with a 
man in great distress. At first he gave me great 
encouragement about coming to see me, but finally 
he gave me the cold shoulder. I wrote him a letter 
requesting him to come or write an answer, but he 
paid no attention to it. I then dropped him a card 
and told him to either return my letter through the 
post office or come in person, as I was writing a 
history and wanted to put the letter in it. 

The letter and card soon came through the 
post office. I wrote him again, explaining my per- 
secution, and told him that he should answer or 
come and see me at my office. He made no effort 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 209 

to do so. I have sent him several propositions to 
come and see me, and save himself from being 
blasted, as his actions showed that he was not go- 
ing to stoop so low as to talk Scripture to such a 
plain-dressed old farmer, an expelled Dunkard, and 
we think some of the members of his church sided 
in with the Dunkard clique, and we think they put 
a bug in the evangelist's ear, and it was a hum- 
bug ; so the reverend gentleman got humbugged 
by some of his own members, and he showed by 
his actions that he would have nothing to do with 
this persecuted Dunkard, but instead of assisting 
me with advice and counsel, he waited until I was 
absent from the city and then made light of my 
troubles. 

I think it showed a most cowardly spirit to make 
sport of me, after I gave him several texts from the 
Bible to preach from. Instead of selecting my 
texts for his sermons he made remarks about me. 
I don't know, and don't care, what those remarks 
were. Of course his audience knew, and they 
ought to know that he took a sneaking way for 
doing it, as to wait until I was. absent. Some of 
his members got disgusted with the foolish remarks 
he made. 

14 



210 HUMAN DEPRA VIT r. 

He first said that the Methodist Church was 
asleep, and needed an awakening. Then, when he 
he got them a little excited, commenced making 
his brags that the Methodist was the best church in 
the universe, saying they had three millions of 
members. It was well that he did not say they had 
three millions of christians in it. We hope, when 
this strikes Mr. Wilson, he will hereafter sit down 
and counsel with a man or a Girl when they make 
an earnest appeal for help as I did. 

I told Mr. Wilson that if I had to paddle my 
own canoe, then their preaching was all in vain ; — 
that it was a dead expense to support minister^ by 
paying them big salaries to stand in the pulpit to 
confuse the people. If we can be saved by the 
Divine Word of God, why not save those big salaries 
and give them to the poor; and if the preachers 
kick against that, send them off to the insane 
asylum or to the penitentiary. 

What we need in this day and age of confusion, 
is the conversion of skeptic preachers. I wrote t® 
the Rev. Mr. Wilson, that if he would convert all 
the skeptic preachers, I would bring up the rear, 
and would convert the world. He undoubtedly 
made light of that, and put me down as a crank. I 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 211 

would rather be called a fool for Christ's sake, than 
be fooled by a skeptic preacher who stands in the 
pulpit to lead his fellow men and women to destruc- 
tion. Let us be careful and look out on that line. 
I honestly believe that many church members 
worship their pastor more than their Creator. 

Copy of a Letter to Rev. Mr. Wilson. 

"Dear Brother Wilson: We sometimes say the third 
time is the charm. I have asked you, I think, three times 
to have a christian talk with me, but your actions show 
to me that you will not do it, and I cannot force it upon 
you. I can tell by your actions, for actions speak louder 
than words. You spoke very loud last night, and as far 
as I could comprehend your words, they were very much 
to the point. 

" Mr. Wilson, I like your way of preaching — you are 
so personal to the professing Christian. That is right. 
You cannot hammer too hard in that direction. It does 
my soul good to see an Evangelist hammer at the very 
root of the most damnable evil that the American people 
are guilty of; that is, to join a church for popularity, or to 
be honored by men in order to move in the society of 
aristocrats, and for self-gain in accumulating the almighty 
dollar. Oh! how can the love of Christ be in the hearts 
of such church members? It is easy to be a professor of 
Christianity, but it is much easier to be an oppressor. If 
you once get the love of Christ in your heart, and have 



212 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

tasted of His great love, then the work is done. We can- 
not help being Christians. If God is for us, who can be 
against us ? The very gates of hell shall not prevail against 
us. Though our lot is cast among demons, hypocrites 
and backbiters, devils, or even the devil's angels, shall not 
prevail against those who firmly trust in Our Redeemer. 
We shall not be persecuted above what we are able to 
bear, if we are planted firmly on that rock. May God 
help you as an Evangelist to make the good people realize 
that we must get down on the solid bed-rock, and our 
house will stand for evermore. Amen." 



ARECOMMENDATION 



Muscatine, Iowa, June 27, 1885. 
Dear Old Friend : I will try to answer your last 
letter. I got the check for $10.00, and am thank- 
ful for the same. As to how you acted while here 
at my house, I cannot say anything but that you 
was a gentleman in every respect, and my wife says 
the same, as do the rest of the folks, except George 
and his wife. I don't know what they say ; that is 
for you and them. I am sorry your wife is sick, but 
hope she is better by this time. I am in a hurry, 
and have not time to do you justice at present. I 
will send your note, and will try to do better next 

time. 

Yours in Love, 

T. G. Thompson. 



A LETTER. 



Cerro Gordo, III., Sept. 4, 1887. 
To the Editor of The Gospel Messenger, 

Mr. Editor : I will not call you brother, for you 
do not act like one towards me, and you have now 
shown your colors as plain as there is any need. 
You had better stop now and consider what you 
have done. For the last three or four years you 
have tried your very best to shield these hypocrites. 
I have warned you that you would expose yourself, 
but have gone on with your cowardly acts and tried 
to screen a number of your colaborers from a hellish 
and heathenish work. Instead of answering my 
questions, which I asked you to publish, so as to 
give the whole brotherhood a chance to reply, I 
suppose you have thrown them in the waste basket, 
with other good letters and good articles, which,, 
although you admitted they were good letters and 
good articles, you called them anonymous, and 



A LETTER. 215 



made that your excuse for not giving them room in 
your paper. 

It seems as though you have no room in your 
paper for my name ; you will have it on the wrap- 
per, but I think you would rather not have it even 
on the outside. I have found that the charities 
asked for by me are growing more frequent, and I 
have found, to my sorrow, that in some cases the 
parties who called for help were not deserving. 
When help is needed it must be sought for in an 
authorized way. Now, Mr. Brumbouck, you, as an 
editor of the Gospel Messenger, are holding a high 
position, and you should not show partiality and 
try to favor such as make and believe lies. You 
may try to frame some excuse or apology after you 
are caught in the trap with some of those unruly 
devils. I have no better name for them until they 
stop their devilish acts and repent of their evil ways, 
and if you will advocate their heathenish case and 
try to hide these ungodly men, you are no better 
than they are. 

Those several articles which you refused to pub- 
lish in your paper will stare you in the face in my 
history, and you cannot help it. Neither can I help 
it that you tolerate such things against me, a perse- 



216 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

cuted one, helpless from most all human aid, and 
that you are casting it on me as severe as you can. 
Can you not see that you are making haste to ruin 
the whole brotherhood of Dunkards ? I am now 
separated from a once-loved family, and all through 
the influence of those that I have mentioned to you 
long ago. I am filling my history with numerous 
letters like this one. I suppose you want a copy of 
it, which I will try to finish before long. Please 
send in your order at once in order to secure a copy, 
as there will be a great demand for the history of 
the supposed crazy Christian Girl. That is my 
name. The old veteran soldier, as some of you 
call him, has declared to my face that he believed I 
was a christian, and believed I was trying to do 
right before God and man ; but the day previous he 
said I must go to Jacksonville if I did not look out. 
I have been watching along the line of that cousin- 
ing ring. The old money-god is king of the gang 
of heathen outlaws — not only outlaws in court 
here on earth, but they have violated God's laws 
where God himself is the Supreme Judge, and not 
Editor Brumbouck, ®r any other red-headed editor 
or preacher. I suppose red hair is honorable if 
the man that wears it is honorable. I had business 



A LETTER. 217 



with several red-haired men in the town of Cerro 
Gordo and they have treated me very mean, one in 
particular that held the office of marshal. He 
arrested me for disturbing the peace. He was the 
cause of my being fined fifteen dollars and costs, 
just for spite. He is a renegade Dunkard, and says 
he belongs to what is called the Christian Church. 
He arrested me because I called him a renegade 
Dunkard. He flew all to pieces, and tried to jerk 
me off my buggy, and took my cane away from me. 
He caught me by the arm, and led me on the side- 
walk down to the 'Squire's office. A big crowd fol- 
lowed us. He kept abusing me as he led me along, 
and said I was drunk. I told him that he was a 
notorious liar. I have lived in this neighborhood 
for twenty-two years, and no one has ever seen me 
drunk. You ask old Johnny Metzker whether I am 
a drunkard or not. They have some such in J. 
Metzker's church. The marshal is in the employ 
of a rich Dunkard, and he helps them to fight for 
self-interest. Some of you Dunkards are all the 
time condemning tobacco, and my observations are 
that the most ungodly and the most unprincipled 
men are the ones that are hammering on the tobacco 
question. Such that would not choke at a lie, and 



218 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

those who have sworn to lies, I have heard talk 
loudest about the evils of tobacco. I heard an old 
bishop say or intimate that a man could not be a 
christian and use tobacco. He talked as though he 
had his whole mind on the filthy weed, and yet at 
the time he talked he was after a rich widow sister, 
and his wife had been buried but a few months. 
He overheard me say to a good brother friend that 
she would make a good wife, but the old bishop 
smelt a rat, hurried up the cakes, and got the rich 
widow. 

T. J. Rosenbarger, who was here early in the 
spring, preached and hollered so that he could be 
heard all over town until his lungs got sore ; but 
went home without any additions to the church. 
Sane and solid-minded men and women will not 
join themselves to such a corrupt cousining ring. 
A deacon was dangerously sick with typhoid fever. 
I understand that he is lamenting, and is afraid if 
he dies he will be lost. I understand his sickness. 
He is a sin-sick soul, and I have written out a pre- 
scription for him, and for the whole cousining ring ; 
but the trouble is they don't take the medicine, and 
they will grow sicker and sicker, and finally die and 
be damned to hell. Not so, because I say so, or 



A LETTER. 219 



you as a preacher in the pulpit say so, but we un- 
derstand the Scriptures that way, and they are 
plain and easy to be understood. What shall be- 
come of the hypocrites, and liars, and drunkards ? 
They shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. 

And now, Mr. Editor, if my writing don't digest 
well with you, get down on your knees and ask 
God to take that stubborn stone away, and pray 
God to help you pull the beam of partiality out of 
your eyes, and then thou shalt see clearly how to 
pull the splinter out of thy brother's eye. Then 
God will make a way possible for you to escape the 
snares of the devil. I am no editor, nor preacher, 
but I am sure that I have been persecuted even to 
false imprisonment, not by my eldest son William, 
but through the cousining ring's influence. My 
family had not wisdom enough to do such mean 
work without the devil's evidence. Bear in mind 
that this is evidence of their evil deeds, and your 
silence proves that you are in the mud as deep as 
they are in the mire, just to screen these men. 
Yours truly, 

Christian Girl. 



SCANDAL LANE. 



It is not on the signboard, sir; 

Go search both far and wide, 
Or in the town directory, 

The map or railroad guide. 
And if you pump your neighbor, sir, 

You pump, alas, in vain, 
For no one e'er acknowledged yet 

He lived in Scandal Lane. 

It is a fearful neighborhood, 

So secret and so sly, 
Although the tenants oftentimes 

Include the rich and high. 
I'm told they're even cannibals, 

And when they dine and sup, 
By way of change they'll turn about 

And eat each other up. 

They much prefer the youthful, sir, 

The beautiful and rare; 
They grind up character and all, 

And call it wholesome fare. 



SCANDAL LANE. 221 



And should the helpless victim wince, 

They heed no cries of pain, 
Those very bloody cannibals 

That live in Scandal Lane. 

If you should chance to dine with them, 

Pray never be deceived, 
When they seem most like bosom friends, 

They're least to be believed. 
Their claws are sheathed in velvet, sir, 

Their teeth are hid by smiles, 
And woe betide the innocent 

Who falls beneath their wiles. 

When they have singled out their prey 

They make a cat-like spring, 
Or hug them like a serpent ere 

They plant the fatal sting. * 
And then they wash their guilty hands 

But don't efface the stain, 
The very greedy cannibals 

That live in Scandal Lane. 



PLEADING TO EDITORS, 



I have plead with the editors to publish my 
articles that I have written calling for a committee 
to investigate my trouble, but the editors would 
not heed my call, because it would expose the ring 
of ungodly men in their acts of breaking up my 
home and family. They would rather screen those 
bishops and elders, as they contributed to the sup- 
port of their papers, and a dollar in their eyes looks 
as big as a wagon wheel. How can so-called 
christians become so depraved as to forsake all 
religion, and help to crush a family for a few cents. 

Here is a copy of a letter I wrote to the editor 
at Cerro Gordo: 

" Mr. Editor — Please to make known my plea and 
my wishes through your paper to my fellow citizens, to 
show how plain is the conflict between right and wrong ; 
that is, give me an equal chance with my opponents, and 
allow me to lay the truth before the public. There have 
been a great many mysterious things come before the 
court, by the way of evidence, that need an immediate ex- 



PLEADING TO EDITORS. 223 

planation before they are forgotten. I would ask it as a 
favor of the citizens of Cerro Gordo to call on me to ex- 
plain the mystery. C. Girl. 

I asked to be heard in council meetings, and I 
plead with them for a committee to investigate the 
church trouble, and see who was wrong, and if it 
was me I was ready to make a good confession ; 
but no, the old bell-shepherd was the cause of all 
the trouble. He said to his flock, we must put this 
man down by denying him power, and we must ex- 
pell him from our church in order to disarm him 
of all vestige of power that he might possess, and 
then we can go on and persecute him at will, and 
we can bring members of our church against him 
to establish whatever we may say against him. 
And that is the way they have done. They have 
resisted my rising in the world, and proclaimed 
that I am standing in the way of God and all good 
people. I have reached out for a helping hand to 
both great and small, but none responded and all 
were silent, and then I would become despondent, 
and found that victory of battle is not in the multi- 
tude or a host of men; but 'strength comes from 
heaven, and then I would renew my strength and 
fight on and on to victory or death, for no man sins 
who will fight for Jesus' sake. 



A LETTER FROM MY DAUGHTER TO HER 

UNCLE. 



Cerro Gordo, III., April ist, 1888. 
Dear Uncle : I feel it my duty to drop you a 
few lines this pleasant Sabbath morning. Pa 
received a letter from you yesterday and I was 
reading it last evening, so I thought it no more than 
my duty to tell you how Pa has suffered. I know 
just how he has suffered by all his friends forsaking 
him and not thinking for a moment what we were 
doing. I will no't leave myself out. I have mis- 
treated him with the rest. But I was blinded by 
evil influence, but now I can see what we have 
been doing. O, how sorry I am that I did not live 
closer to God's word, for that is the right way. I 
hope you will stop and think what you write to Pa, 
for he has suffered so much. Now, dear uncle, I 
don't mean this all for his good only, but for your 
own eternal happiness. I will tell you this because 
I know it is true, just as sure as God's words are 



A LETTER FROM IDA GIRL. 225 

true. If we all would have taken Pa's good counsel 
we would have spared ourselves so much trouble. 
But instead of doing that, we did not take heed to 
his advice. When we get good counsel that comes 
from the Bible, then we ought to receive it, for the 
time will come when all would like to receive it, 
when it will be too late. O, how important it is 
to prepare ourselves for that long and sweet rest. 
Time spent with God is never lost, for without him 
we can do nothing as it ought to be done. Pa has 
almost completed his history, and I am interested 
in it. I think it will be good, and hope it will bring 
souls to Christ. We are once more on the old 
farm where we were raised, and we all appreciate 
it more than ever. It is through God's goodness 
and mercy that we are here. Pa is the best friend 
we have except God. Now, uncle, what I have 
written I have written for good. We all have a 
soul to save, and I think just us much of your soul 
as any one's. This may be hard for you to under- 
stand, but it is true. My desire is to give good 
counsel. The way to understand this is to take 
God's word and see what He says. Everything 
shall fade away but His word, and that will always 
stand. I have talked to my brothers and sisters 

15 



226 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

but they seem to get offended. I do not talk to 
them to do them harm, but want to show them that 
they have been led wrong. All must come to what 
I have sooner or later. God says why not come 
now, for to-morrow it may be too late. If a person 
will let his heart be hardened, then he can never 
see God. Dear uncle, I can tell you with truth 
that I have respected Pa's good counsel, for it was 
out of the bible. I pray that God may forgive me 
for not treating him as I should. O, how he has 
prayed for his family, that they might see their evil 
ways and turn to God. Always be sure and get 
right with God, then you will make a safe voyage 
across the sea of life, and a sure landing on the 
evergreen shore. I hope you will not think hard of 
me for writing. I hope to do you good by telling 
you what I know. Please tell your children to 
write. I will close by wishing you peace and hap- 
piness through this sinful world. 

From your neice, 

Ida Girl. 



Three Words of Strength. 



There are three lessons I would write, — 
Three words, as with a burning pen, 

In tracings of eternal light 
Upon the hearts of men. 

Have hope ! Though clouds environ now, 
And gladness hides her face in scorn; 

Put thou the shadow from thy brow, 
No night but hath its morn. 

Have faith ! Where'er thy bark is driven, — 
The calms disport the tempest's mirth; 

Know this, — God rules the host of heaven, 
Th' inhabitants of the earth. 

Have love ! Not alone for one, 

But man as man, thy brothers' call; 

And scatter, like the evening sun, 
Thy charities on all. 

Thus grave these lessons on thy soul,— 

Hope, Faith and Love, — and thou shalt find 

Strength, when life's surges rudest roll; 
Light when thou else wert blind. 



CLIPPINGS 



[From the Decatur Bulletin, .] 

The trial of the indictment of Louis Beery should 
be the last act in the Christian Girl tragedy. The 
history of this case is a remarkable one in a christian 
and civilized community, and smacks strongly of the 
witch-burning fanaticism of the c lden time 

Christian Girl is an old citizen and a prosperous 
farmer of Macon County, and was a devout member 
of the Dunkard Church ; but, unfortunately lor him, 
he is a man who does his own thinking, and does 
not hesitate to discuss the theological tenets of the 
church, and the practice of the congregation with 
the ministers, and the marriage of cousins, and the 
uneducated ministry were matters that Mr. Girl 
pressed with great vigor. Those of the brethren 
who were married to cousins, and the ministers who 
were unable to combat the logic of the heretic, de- 
clared him to be insane, withdrew his guarantee of 
salvation, and subjected him to the pains and penal- 
ties of a present and eternal boycott. He was 



CLIPPINGS. 229 



driven from his own home and denied intercouse 
with the members of his own family, and information 
of insanity was filed in the county court and sup- 
ported with great zeal ; but the court and jury sat 
down hard on the movement by a prompt judgment 
in his favor, and the circuit court confirmed his vin- 
dication by a judgment of $500 damages for ma- 
licious prosecution. The indictment and conviction 
of Beery, his son-in-law, is for a brutal assault on 
the old man when he attempted to visit his wife, 
who was detained at the house of the defendant 
against her will, as he thought, will settle this un- 
civil controversy. We understand that Mr. Girl 
will take his case to the church council as soon as 
the matter in the court is settled. 



Girl's Memoirs. 

[From a Decatur Paper.] 

Early this morning the reporter crossed palms 
with Christian Girl, who is now devoting all his 
spare hours to writing a voluminous history of his 
eventful life, covering a detailed statement of all his 
trouble with the Dunkard brethren in the vicinity of 
Oakley, where the old gentleman has a farm valued 



230 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

at $20,000. Mr. Girl has come into prominence 
through insanity and damage cases in the local 
courts, and is still after his alleged persecutors. A 
jury failed to give him a verdict for damages at the 
recent trial, and he will appeal the case to the Appel- 
late Court. He has a room at Henry McDermot's 
residence, where the Memoirs will be corrected and 
revised before being handed to the printer, to be 
published in book form. 



[From the Decatur Bulletin.'] 

Court was convened at 1 1 o'clock yesterday 
forenoon. The case now on trial is that of the 
people with Louis Beery. The defendant is a son- 
in-law of the redoubtable Christian Girl, who is the 
chief prosecuting witness. Beery is charged with 
having assaulted Girl with intent to do him bodily 
harm. D. L. Bunn is assisting the State's Attorney 
in the prosecution, and Beery is being defended by 
Nelson & Harnsberger and J. A. Buckingham. 



[From the Decatur Bulletin^ 

" You say you hear that I am insane? No, my 
dear brother, I am not crazy. Would to Heaven I 
were, or dead, or anything to be free from this awful 



MR. THOMAS. 231 



trouble. My church, my loving wife and my dear, 

sweet children against me, in a way that seems 

impossible to ever live together again, is breaking 

my heart, and it may drive me crazy in time ; but, 

my dear brother, believe me, my mind is not gone 

yet." Christian Girl. 

December 15, 1884. 



MR. THOMAS. 



I will now expose a few more of what the Scrip- 
tures would term evil doers, such as would betray 
their trust for a little worldly gain, such as would 
come to a persecuted man and let on that they 
were in great sympathy with him, and even offer a 
helping hand. I will name as one, guilty of such 
cowardly work, an old man by the name of Thomas. 
He was condemning those treacherous Dunkards, 
and speaking rather hard of the dishonesty of some 
of them, and proposed that I should give him a 
job of trimming my orchard, and that he would help 
and get my family reconciled. I gave him a job of 
work and he demanded his cash as soon as the 
work was done, and he got his pay. 



232 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

I then called upon him to do what he promised 
to do. He was to help to induce the old lady and 
the youngest daughter to go with me to Ohio, and 
there spend the winter, in order to get them away 
from bad influences, and the old coon endorsed my 
plan, and he said it was the best thing I could do, 
and he would help me all he could to persuade 
them both to go. He went to them and he made 
the old lady believe that my farm was all under 
mortgage, that some of the Dunkards told him that 
I owed more than I was worth, and the old lady 
was so worked up about it that Mrs. Marker told 
me that Mrs. Girl was restless all night from the 
scare from such hellish lies he tried to make her 
believe. 

That is not all that pious looking old coon done. 
I took him to Mrs. Wells', where the youngest 
daughter was, and he had a private conversation 
with her, with the understanding between him and 
me that he should persuade her to go with her 
father, in order to induce her mother to go, so as to 
get away from bad influences, as the old lady was 
rather weak-minded on account of having her dear 
family broken up, and the general confusion of the 
neighborhood. The old man reported that the 



MR. THOMAS. 233 



daughter refused to go. The daughter told me 
afterwards that he told her she had better not go 
with us to Ohio, and so, of course, we did not go, 
and he was the cause of my not going, and also the 
cause of other serious troubles. It is said that he 
has joined the Dunkard's Church. We do not 
know whether he repented of his treacherous act 
of hypocrisy or not. I suppose they, of course, 
would not refuse to baptize such birds as him, but 
as birds of a feather flock together, we think they 
ought to give him a position in the official board of 
that cousining ring to help them run their gospel 
ship overboard. We hope he may become a chris- 
tian, and we wish him God-speed, giving him this 
admonition for his good and for the cause of Christ, 
and that he may be a true and faithful worker 
therein. 



MR. ANTRIM AND WIFE. 



We will now speak of some who call themselves 
evangelists, of Mr. and Mrs. Antrim, living in 
Oakley, Illinois, belonging to what is called the 
United Brethren. She is the best public speaker 
of the two, and, we think, wears the pants. She 
seems to know a great deal of Scripture, but we 
doubt whether she observes the plain commands of 
our Saviour's teachings. 

I got acquainted with Mr. Antrim at a Sunday- 
school, and he left an appointment for his wife to 
preach on the following evening. I told Mr. Antrim 
that I was glad of his acquaintance, and the follow- 
ing conversation took place. I told him that I was 
a terribly persecuted man at the hands of false 
brethren. He heard me patiently, and seemed to 
sympathize with me. My request was that I was 
to meet him and explain to him in what way I was 
so mysteriously in trouble, but I went home and 
wrote him and his wife a long letter, asking them 






MR. ANTRIM AND WIFE. 23£ 

to answer or come and see me, or give me an invi- 
tation to come and see them ; but no letter came, 
nor did they come to see me. 

In my first talk with him I mentioned that 
Simon Nickey and his wife were leading two of my 
boys wrong, namely, William and Franklin, the 
oldest and youngest, who were under the devilish 
influence of these two hypocrites. He told me 
that our son Franklin was a member of their church. 
I asked him if Simon Nickey and his wife belonged 
to the same church, and he said they did. I told 
him that boy could never be a christian with such 
a load of sin on his shoulders, but he was makings 
a very good start to be a complete hypocrite. 

He did not answer my letter, so I went to his 
house one evening. He invited me into the house 
and bid me be seated. I asked him whether he got 
my letter, and he said he did. He was willing to 
answer my questions, which were fair and reason- 
able, but as soon as we got a little interested in the 
conversation his wife came bouncing out of the 
kitchen, not like an angel, but like a mad hare, and 
she did not want to be introduced to the stranger by 
her husband, but she was very angry, and declared 
that they wanted nothing to do with the matter, 



236 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

and I looked every moment for her to open the door 
and tell me to leave. She said : " Mr. Girl, I just 
tell you that we will have nothing to do with your 
matter;" and repeated that several times, and she 
wanted to do all the talking. I told her to hold up 
a little, that I wanted to tell her some things. I 
told her that I did not come to their house to 
quarrel with them, but to reason and plead with 
them. Well, I got her quieted down for a moment. 
I told her that I had a copy of the letter I wrote to 
them, that I was going to lecture at Sangamon on 
the following Sunday, and if they did not treat me 
right I would read it there. This made her more 
angry than ever, and told me to read it, she did 
not care, and I did read it. I will try and give the 
essence of it. 

"Cerro Gordo, III., June 13, 1887. 
" Mr. Antrim : Dear Brother — I am sorry that I have 
not formed an acquaintance with you long ago. Now, 
dear brother, I have surely a work for you to do, and the 
best thing you can do is to say, Brother Girl, I will do 
what I can for you and your family. You know what 
is your christian duty, but, brother, I want a voluntary 
act, if any, with a christian spirit. Now, dear brother, 
here is a wonderful chance to do good, not only to your 
unworthy brother, but for the benefit of my dear inex- 
perienced boys and my broken-up family. I feel that my 






MR. ANTRIM AND WIFE. 237 

soul is saved, but my children are in the hands of Satan's 
influence. You may say that Mr. Girl is one of those 
sanctified ones that cannot sin any more. No, no. I 
don't want to get close to one of those sanctified, pious- 
looking, religious fools. I want to be sure to take good 
care of my pocket-book as long as I am near them. 
He that says he has no sin is a liar. I would rather meet 
with a rattlesnake than one of those pious-looking preach- 
ers, for the snake will rattle before he bites, but a hypocrite 
will bite before he rattles. The old king said that I had 
to go to Jacksonville, but he is a liar. I am still here 
writing a history to expose his devilment. He has got the 
Devil's angels hovering round him in the very image of 
the Devil. Dear brother, don't get scared, It may seem 
to you that I am tearing something all to pieces. All 
that is good will hold until the end of time. He that is 
not for me is against me. We are to be hot or cold. 
Lukewarmness is condemned. And now, my good friends, 
you have a great work before you. Your wife is a 
colaborer with you in the spiritual work, and you ought 
to be a wonderful power for good; and as my dear and 
unexperienced son, Franklin Girl, belongs to your church, 
you may have a wonderful influence over him for good or 
evil. 

" As I told you yesterday, that boy cannot be a chris- 
tian until he releases his grip on his parents in holding 
secrets. Just think of it ; he was influenced to swear 
falsely against his father. Don't try to reason with your- 
selves, and say Mr. Girl may be mistaken. No ; I am not 



238 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

mistaken ; but I am positive of the terrible thing, — of 
my boys whom I have raised, and God knows I have tried 
to raise them right, always admonishing them to be hon- 
est and to stick to the truth. 

" Now, my friends, I will say you ought to be a happy 
pair, as your better half is watching over you as far as 
your spiritual affairs are concerned. The Scriptures say 
we shall be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. 
We will say that a great many of the preachers are as 
wise as serpents in accumulating worldly trash, as J. 
Metzker calls it. They have got that wisdom, but that is 
not the best part of the question. The latter part of that 
verse strikes the christian best. As harmless as doves. 
A wonderful contrast between the dove and the serpent. 
The one harmless and the other harmful as a hypocrite, an( 
deadly and poisoning to a christian. The people are get- 
ting to throw a cloak of religion around them. You pull 
off that cloak, and behold, you have a ravenous wolf be- 
fore you. They pray like a saint, but the Scriptures say, 
watch and pray. There is enough praying done to con- 
vert the whole world, and now, my friends, you have such 
before you in Simon Nickey and his wife ; making pre- 
tentions that they are protecting one of those little lambs, 
who has sinned against his parents worse than the prodi- 
gal. Simon and his wife are leading him on in his evil 
ways." 

Those two evangelists had a chance to do good, 
but they chose the evil part. I do not wish to 



MR. ANTRIM AND WIFE. 239 

screen one of them, for they are equally guilty with 
some of those Dunkards in helping to ruin and 
break up a once loving family. We hope those 
evangelists may learn a lesson from this book to do 
their duty as peacemakers, as any true evangelist 
should at all times be ready to speak peace to the 
church, to the community, and to the family. 

We will give them a chapter to meditate upon, 
and hope they will be benefitted thereby. I Peter, 
chapter third : — 

I. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own 
husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may 
without the word be won by the conversation of the 
wives; 

17. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye 
suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. 

also II Peter, chapter second: — 

7. And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy con- 
versation of the wicked: 

8. (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in 
seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to 
day with their unlawful deeds.) 

We have strong reasons for believing that those 
two evangelists took an active part in hiding church 
members' ungodly mischief. 



240 HUMAN DEPRA VITT. 

Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. 
I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. 
For we being many are one bread, and one body: for 
we are all partakers of that one bread. 

And now, my dear friends, as you cast me off as 
evangelists, not having as much as given me counsel, 
but treated me cold and indifferently I hope you 
will read my history carefully and prayerfully. I 
hope you will say to yourselves that you will do 
better next time ; that you will judge for yourselves, 
and judge properly and truly and honestly, and pray 
to God to give you wisdom from on high, and try 
to obtain what you pray for. The weapons of our 
warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to 
the pulling down of strongholds. 

Now, as evangelists, it is your duty to go and 
preach and practice the bible in every land, and in 
every clime, and when a poor mortal comes to you 
for the bread of life, do not turn him from your door 
because he don't just suit you, or his multitude of 
sins are too great for you to battle with. May God 
help you to always hold up for the right, and do 
your duty to all mankind. 



EXHORTATION. 



Dear readers : I wish to bring the mysterious 
and strange conduct of my antagonists before you 
in as plain a manner as possible, often using our 
conversation in detail, so that all may understand 
it, and it is not an easy task for me to expose these 
evil men and women, but, in an ' illiterate way, I 
will give nothing but facts, and none of them can 
deny the truths I have written. I am just giving 
the actions of the leaders. If I should give you all 
of their hellish persecutions it would make a volume 
of a thousand pages, but I only want to give 
enough to the public to show what a set of evil 
men and women can do in breaking up a family 
and about break the hearts of the persecuted. 
They have caused me to spend hundreds of dollars 
in protecting my character. All good thinking peo- 
ple will see what I have had to stand in battling 
against a set of " professing " christians. I do 
hope they will reform, as that is partly the object 

16 



242 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

of the publication of this book, and throw off the 
cloak of unrighteousness and get righteousness in 
their hearts, and then, instead of trying to tear 
down and break up families, they will try to build 
up and talk peace instead of confusion. 

We find many blessed words in the sacred Bible 
to meditate upon. Among others I find the follow 
ing, and if my persecutors had only meditated upon 
them they would have saved many a heart ache, 
and many a dollar. 

They are found in Paul's letter to the Galatians, 
sixth chapter : 

1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye whicl 
are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meek- 
ness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 

2. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill th< 
law of Christ. 

3. For if a man think himself to be something, whei 
he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 

4. But let every man prove his own work, and then 
shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in 
another. 

5. For every man shall bear his own burden. 

6. Let him that is taught in the word communicate 
unto him that teacheth in all good things. 

7. Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 



1 



EXHORTATION. 243 



8. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh 
reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of 
the Spirit reap life everlasting. 

9. And let us not be weary in well doing : for in due 
season we shall reap, if we faint not. 

10. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good 
unto all men, especially unto them who are of the house- 
hold of faith. 

If they had only studied this passage of God's 
word they could have saved so much trouble. The 
first verse, if they claimed I was weak, it told them 
to restore me. The second verse tells us to bear 
one other's burdens, help to bear one another's 
grief, and make the load lighter upon a weak 
brother. The third verse instructs us not to think 
too highly of ourselves, but to get down hurnbly 
with our brother or we will fall ; and in the fifth 
verse we find that every man must answer for his 
own sins. 

I am glad that we do not have to answer for 
another's, for if I had to answer for some of these 
men's, I would be sure of being lost. 

The sixth verse tells us that we must teach one 
another. When I began to teach them they were 
like a balky horse when the whip is used. It will 
kick up and try to get its harness off, and[]when it 



244 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

starts up it will jump and do all it can to try and do 
you harm. Just as soon as I read the Word of God 
to them, and showed them they were not pulling 
they way God wanted them to, they began to kick, 
but they have not got the harness on to kick off. 
Not that I am a judge, only God says you shall 
know them by their fruits ; and they are now trying 
to run away with my character, but I have a tight 
rein on them, and I think this book is the last turn 
I will have to make to bring them up all safe and 
sound. 

The seventh verse tells us to be not deceived. 
God is not mocked. There is a great many of them 
who are trying to deceive the people by professing 
to be christians, but they cannot deceive God ; and 
the latter clause tells us that whatsoever we sow 
that shall we also reap. I would not like to reap 
after some of them if they do not repent of their 
wickedness, for, if God's Word is true, it will be a 
very warm harvest. 

Dear friends, I beseech of you to study these 
passages and follow them in the future, and you will 
reap life everlasting. 

And now the tenth verse, there is a wonderfuL 
lesson in it : " As we have therefore opportunity let 






ELDER STOUFER. 245 



us do good unto all men." You all had a chance 
to do good, but you did not obey the teachings of 
that verse, but you did all the harm you could. Let 
ms put on the whole armor of God, that we may be 
able to stand against all evil doings, and work boldly 
for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and he will 
reward us in the end. 



ELDER STOUFER. 



I wish now to bring before you, my readers, 
the actions of one more of the turn coats, and show 
how one more of my friends became a tool for that 
cousining ring after my trouble came up. Manon 
Stoufer was a little Dutch preacher who lived a 
neighbor to me for many years, and we were always 
on friendly terms before this trouble began, and 
after becoming my neighbor we talked very freely 
of church matters, and he agreed with me concern- 
ing the bad elements and rulings of church govern- 
ment. He was very free to condemn this marrying 
of cousins, and stated that he would not perform the 



246 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

marriage ceremony for them, and we were fast 
friends. When he moved away from our neighbor- 
hood to Millmine district he was elected to the 
highest degree of the ministry, and is now a bishop 
at Champaign county, Illinois, and after this he has 
always given me the cold shoulder and became very 
impudent to me on all occasions. He would come 
down to Cerro Gordo to partake with those evil 
doers in their pretended love feasts, and took their 
counsel in my case, and sided in with them, and 
obeyed the leader, Johnny Metzker, in all he said, 
and would not listen to what I would say to him, 
but he yielded to their wishes to help* them cover 
their deception. 

His colaborer in Champaign, Brother Barnhart, 
would come with him to attend their love feast, I 
think, by an especial invitation from old Johnny 
Metzker, for he was very anxious to make a good 
display around the communion table, and he did 
always manage to have a good supply of preachers 
to come to their feasts to deceive the outside world. 
The reader will see that this little Dutch preacher, 
M. Stoufer, has become a tool for those that he had 
poked fun at, and had called ignorant, and a selfish 
cousining ring governed by a little leader, one 



ELDER STOUFER. 247 



that is called Johnny. It is well enough to show 
to the reader what confidence Stoufer had in me. 
He signed a note as security for about eight hundred 
dollars. Those evil men got him alarmed. At 
least he said that I must stop traveling around on 
the cars or he did not feel safe on that note. I 
told him that was my business ; if I wanted to travel 
that I was not under his obligation. I told him I 
would give him a chattel mortgage to secure him. 
I gave him to understand that he could not be my 
guardian, just because he signed his name on a 
note with me. I secured him after it was done, and 
the note was paid as soon as it was due. 

The little Dunkard preacher had full confidence 
in me until he became a tool for them^that he con- 
demned, at one time, just as much as I did. About 
that time he became a middle man between me and 
John Mishler, to hold and deliver the papers be- 
tween me and him on some borrowed money. 
Stoufer was to receive the money and send it to 
Mishler. The papers were sent to Stoufer, and he 
came to me and said: " You go down to Decatur 
and send that money to Mishler. I know you are 
honest, you can do that as good as I can ; you are 
used to such business." I did so, and Mishler got 



248 HUM AW DEPRA VIT Y. 

his money, and sent me a good recommend like 
this : 

"Brother Girl: Concerning our dealings for many 
years, I am glad to say that I have found you 
straight in all our dealings together, and must say 
that I always found you honest, honorable and 
set you down as a straight-forward business man." 

But as Stoufer became a tool for those he had 
poked fun at, he has to suffer with them in having 
a place in this history, as he had plenty of warning 
with the many good and wholesome and truthful 
letters he received ; but he was not willing to give 
a helping hand. He would not as much as answer 
one of my letters, but stood on the wrong side of 
the fence and grinned at me. My wife had con- 
fidence in Stoufer as a good counselor, and begged 
me to go to him for counsel. I went with her, and 
made them a visit, and Stoufer agreed to meet us 
before Dr. Barnes, in Decatur, 111., and he was to 
be the judge whether I was a sane man or not. At 
that time, if he had had a good honest heart, he 
would have told Mrs. Girl, " You have got confused 
in your mind by that cousining ring, and you are a 
little stubborn. You have a sane man. All there 
is the matter is,*your husband is fighting the devil 



ELDER STOUFER. 249 



that has come in the church, and you help him 
fight;" but instead of that, he agreed to meet us 
in Dr. Barnes' office on an appointed day, to lay the 
matter before him. John Phillips, and a few more, 
were appointed to accompany us to the doctor, and 
I agreed to open the subject before him. 

Well, we met at the appointed time, but the 
doctor was absent, and Stoufer made an excuse 
that he could not wait any longer for the doctor, 
and that, he must and would go home, and off he 
started like an old hypocrite, sneaking away. He 
had not been gone but a few minutes and the doc- 
tor came in. He sent a man after Stoufer to fetch 
him ; that we were now ready to go before the doc- 
tor, but he sneaked off like a prairie wolf with 
sheep's clothing on. The rest of us approached 
the doctor, and I said: "Doctor, here are some 
folks that have been intimating that I was insane, 
and I agreed to come before you and have you to 
judge the matter." The doctor looked me in the 
face smiling, and said, " You seem to be all right 
to-day, but you might seem all right to-day, and 
not so to-morrow." I said, "Well, doctor, I guess 
I'll have to come and stay with you a week and saw 
wood for you." He laughed and we went home 



250 



HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



and attended to our business. Afterwards I begged 
Stoufer to go and talk to my confused family. He 
had promised to do so, but shrank from his promise, 
and no doubt but he was willing to help to confuse 
my family instead of talking peace to them. H< 
was one of the strife-makers, and supported them 
in communing with them, and he was as impudent 
as an old rat, and as witty as a monkey. He was 
not brought to the court against me. It is a wondei 
that he was not, but he did enough mischief out- 
side of the court-room. He tried to save others 
and can't save himself. He is only a middle-aged 
man, about forty five years of age. This will last 
him to the end of his career, and we hope he may 
come out and make an open confession to my wife 
and children for neglect of his duty as a shepherd, 
and be a peace-maker the balance of his lifetime, 
and do the Lord's will, and not side in with a set oi 
ungodly men to stand as an evil-doers and encou- 
rage obstinancy in a man's family. Blessed are th< 
peace-makers, for they shall see God. 



JOHN METZKER. 



Dear Reader: I will now endeavor to speak of 
the leader in all my trouble and the leader of the 
cousining ring. I have written much about his 
word is "law" in "his church." I say his church, 
because he paid most of the money to build it, and 
he uses that as a great authority, and says " my 
church." He forgets that it has been dedicated to 
God and His cause, but some have to be very im- 
portant, and he is one of them. His actions show 
the cowardly, unchristianized principle that so many 
people have in heart, that when a man starts down 
hill, to push him all they can instead of obeying our 
Saviour's commandments, — to do good to all man- 
kind. His money gains him many followers, and 
they all do his bidding. He uses his money like 
the Pharisee, — after giving it he makes a great 
blow about it. Our Savior tells us that our righteous- 
ness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisee, 
or we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven ; and 



252 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

again he tells us that we must not let our right hand 
know what our left hand doeth, but Johnny must 
surely spend about as much advertising as he gives. 
He was about the first man I became acquainted 
with in this place, and our first acquaintance was 
very agreeable to me. I found him very friendly, 
and he seemed to want to accommodate me. He 
heard that I wanted to purchase a farm, and he 
told me of different farms for sale, and I bought a 
quarter section in the same neighborhood he lived 
in, and he accommodated me in various ways. } 
thought I had found a lifetime friend, but I found 
him to be a Satan in disguise. He has loaned me 
money on my word, and through his many kind 
deeds toward me he gained my confidence, and I 
appreciated his kindness ; but it seems to me that 
it was only a bait, and I have learned a lesson by 
it. Experience teaches us many a lesson, but we 
have to pay dear for them ; and now, through his 
influence, I have had to undergo the vilest perse- 
cution that a person could stand and come out a 
sane man. I was invited many times to unite with 
his church, and by their good preaching my wife 
was induced to unite with them, and in a few days I 
followed her example. I started with the full deter- 



JOHN METZKER. 253 



mination to live a christian life and obey my Saviour's 
teachings, and I have done my best, but under the 
circumstances it has been almost impossible, but I 
will hold out faithful until the end. 

After persuading me to join the church he was 
not satisfied until he had me out, and if a man with 
money wants to run a church or any thing else in 
this nineteenth century he can do it. Christ says 
in Matthew "that there is nothing impossible with 
God;" and "he" is a god of the Cerro Gordo 
brotherhood, and, of course, there is nothing impos- 
sible in his ruling the church ; but I hope they will 
see that that god can not save them. If they follow 
in his steps he will lead them to destruction, if he 
does not turn in the right direction and repent of his 
evil deeds. May he remember the calling he has 
is the highest calling given to man, and I, with Paul, 
will say : 

" I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you 
that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are 
called. 

" With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, 
forbearing one another in love. 

" Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the 
bond of- peace." 



254 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

My prayer is, that he might read this book care- 
fully and see the harm he has done ; how he has 
been the leader in breaking up a once loving family, 
and causing discord in a whole neighborhood. 
Paul says: " Walk worthy of the vocation where- 
with ye are called," and I hope he will try in the 
future to take Paul's advice in this respect, and 
practice what he preaches. 



EXPENSE ACCOUNT. 



This is a partial statement and list of the court 

and other expenses that this vile cousining ring 

has brought upon me. It is the remnant of an 

effect brought on by trying to live strictly honest 

and religiously among a set of hypocrites and liars. 

Sheriff Fees, - - - - $202.50 
Witness Fees, - - - - 430.00 
Lawyer Fees, - - - - 85 5. 00 
Doctor Fees, - - 90.00 

Last time, ----- 150.00 
Rent, ------- 57.00 

Traveling, - 80.00 

Nurse Fees, ----- 16.00 

Total, ----- $1,880.50 



EXPENSE ACCOUNT. 255 

It is impossible to make a strictly correct state- 
ment of all the cost those brethren have forced on 
me by their bad evidence, but this I can say, five 
years ago my farm was all clear of mortgages, and 
I had some money loaned out on interest, and had 
my farm well stocked with horses, cattle, hogs, 
sheep and poulty, and now I have my farm doubly 
mortgaged for about four thousand dollars. In the 
four years I lost four thousand dollars, to say noth- 
ing about the wear and tear of my old body, as 
Johnny Metzker wOuld say. Better wear out than 
rust out. Wear the body out to save the soul. He 
said that right if he would only practice what 
he preaches, then he would be a good man. We 
will still hope he will repent and be converted to 
God. He has been converted and perverted, and 
is now confused in his old age. I hope he will 
muster up courage enough to come out on the 
Lord's side, and lay the devil in the shade. As he 
is so anxious to have a good name in the Dunk- 
ard's papers, we hope he will now come out through 
the Messenger with a good confession. I would 
rather go to heaven through the poor house, than 
go down to hell in a golden craft. 



256 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Paul says: " Charge them that are within this 
world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in 
uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth 
us richly all things to enjoy." I hope he will cease 
to be high-minded and get down on a level with 
his brethren who have not so much of this world's 
goods. 



BROTHER MQORE 



A few lines for Brother Moore of Kenka, Florida. 
His treatment towards a persecuted brother is not 
to be recommended. I visited his place in a far 
away country with the expectation of having a warm 
reception from him and his little band of brethren. 
I went eighteen miles, from Palatka to Kenka, in 
order to see him and the brethren, to form some 
acquaintance with his little flock, which he had 
under his care, as he is their elder and has started 
up the enterprise by way of a church there to 
advance the cause of Christ. I supposed he was 
the main man in the enterprise, and I went there to 



BROTHER MOORE. 257 



worship with them, but got rather a cold reception 
from him. He did not treat me as though I was a 
persecuted one, but rather as though I was an 
impostor, while I yet belonged to the church before 
this great conflict commenced so rough. At that 
time Brother Moore was yet living in Champaign 
county, Illinois. I have entertained him and he 
has partaken of our hospitality. I told him in a 
letter that he owes nothing for that, but I don't 
know how it will stand between him and his God, 
to point out a boarding house to a brother that he 
knew for many years, who had come to see him 
and make him a friendly visit. As we stepped off 
the train he pointed me to a boarding house that 
was kept by some of the members of his church. 
That did not disappoint me, for I had money to pay 
my way. The next day I attended their meeting 
and shook hands with him, with some hope that he 
would give me an invitation to come and see him 
as his house was in plain sight. Well, I thought 
it was rather cold treatment, and on Monday I went 
back to Palatka, where I and daughter Ida wintered 
for a few weeks. I took my daughter Ida up to 
Kenka, as she had some lady friends that she had 
known in Illinois, by the name of Wolf. They 

17. 



258 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

entertained us pleasantly, and it was very much 
appreciated. God will bless them for their kindness 
towards some of their fellow men. 

What I have to say about them is not to flatter 
them. I hope it may be my privilege to entertain 
them, and show my respect to them for their kind- 
ness shown in time of need. We went to meeting 
together, and Moore did not as much as invite me 
and my daughter to see them, and did not as much 
as introduce his wife to us. It made my daughter 
spunky. She did not care about going to hear 
Brother Moore preach. He showed not a very 
good spirit just at that time, but I hope he will re- 
pent of his cold treatment to his Illinois friends. It 
hurt my daughter's feelings worse than what it did 
mine. She became a member of the Brethren 
Church, and I think she made a good start in the 
divine life. It is possible that we will go to Florida 
again, and I have wondered whether Brother Moore 
will treat us any better if he is convinced that I was 
a persecuted one instead of an impostor. He said 
in the first and last letter that he did not think he 
had treated me cold. I could say a good deal 
more, but a hint to the wise is sufficient. We will 
make some allowance for Brother Moore. The 



LAST LAW SUIT. 259 



trouble is he places too much confidence in what I 
call big guns while he preaches in the pulpit, — that 
God is no respector of persons. The bishop is 
getting too high-minded. I will refer Brother 
Moore to the twenty-third chapter of Luke. Bro. 
" More " has forgotten more Scripture than I ever 
loiew. I hope for the time when Brother Moore 
will say that he has learned some things from one 
who has been called a fool, or crank, by some of his 
colaborers whom he put so much trust in. 



LAST LAW SUIT. 



I will now give some of my experience of the 
last law suit in what is called a court of justice, the 
law suit brought before 'Squire Yoder, on the 15th 
<iay of February, 1888. I shall first name the cause 
of the law suit between me and my tenant, William 
Heil. He was introduced to me by J. M. Rainey 
of Decatur, 111., and was recommended as a good 
and honorable man. Mr. Rainey said his wife was 
partly raised in his family, and he spoke highly of 
her and said she was as neat as a pin. There may 



260 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

be pins that were lost, and they may become rusty,. 
so they become useless. Well, we will see whether 
they filled the bill according to Mr. Rainey's recom- 
mendation. J. M. Rainey acted as a guardian over 
Heil. As he had taken an active part in the law 
suit before 'Squire Yoder, we think that he done 
the planning in the suit, although he seemed to act 
very innocent in testifying about the amount of 
apples in the orchard, also the quality of the apples. 
He made them so very inferior that they were 
hardly worth noticing. He said they were little 
bits of snarly apples hardly fit to use. The lawyer 
asked him if they were as large as grapes. I think 
Rainey said, there were only a few snarly apples* 
He said he was not over all the orchard, and that 
he did not notice, and could not tell much about 
the quantity or the quality. The lawyer asked if 
Heil brought him some of the apples, and he said 
he believed he did bring some to his house. When 
asked how many, he guessed about a peck or so. 
When asked if he ate some of them, he said he did 
not remember whether he did or not, and yet he 
seemed to know that they were hardly fit to eat, — 
all wormy and no good. He stated that I called 
on him to speak to Heil in order to quiet him down 



LAST LAWSUIT. 261 



so that a man could talk and reason with him. He 
did not tell that I said, that if he did not quiet down 
I would have a peace warrant served upon him, 
that Heil had made serious threats, etc. Rainey 
said he had talked to him, but could do nothing 
with him. He acted as guardian over him, but by 
his conduct and his evidence, displayed a willing- 
ness to protect him in his devilment ; as much as to 
say — " I can do nothing against him, but I will do 
all I can for him, even if I do have to strain the 
truth." 

Rainey, by his very actions, showed that he knew 
lie was not doing right in supporting such a man, 
who he had recommended to me. He was ashamed 
to own that he acted as guardian over Heil. Heil 
asked his consent to rent the summer-house. 
Rainey took a very active part in helping Heil to 
cheat me out of my apples. He was willing to call 
them little bits of snarly things, althouh he had sold 
some of them as high as one dollar a bushel. If 
Mr. Rainey had given good counsel to Heil, Heil 
would have done better. It seems to me that I never 
saw a more guilty-looking set before a 'Squire in my 
life, and I think J. M. Rainey was their bell-sheep. 
He makes no profession of religion. I think he told 



262 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

me he used to belong to the Episcopalians, but he 
either left the church, or they threw him overboard.. 
I had lots of dealings with the man. I bought 
some cattle from him, paid him some money down, 
and gave my note for the balance. I soon found 
out his shrewdness. That was the first of my ac- 
quaintance with Mr. Rainey. I was forced to sell 
the cattle sooner than I wanted to, because my an- 
tagonist got a fee-bill against me of $640, and my 
tenant, Heil, was contrary, and would not let me 
have my own corn to feed my cattle with, so we 
shipped the cattle to Chicago in Rainey's name, and 
I went along to see to them. After we received 
remittances from our agent, I paid off some lawyer 
fees and other expenses, and had enough left to pay 
Rainey. He said he did not want the money, he 
only wanted interest. I told him I could not use 
the money to good advantage. He had found out 
by that time that my land was heavily encumbered, 
but he was willing to take a second mortgage to se- 
cure his $840. I suppose he calculated to get my 
homestead of eighty acres, for he thought it had to 
be sold to pay court and other expenses that a set 
of devilish liars had forced on to me. 



LAST LAW 8 UIT. 263 



To prove my assertions, I will give a further 
account of the proceedings of the old shrewd fox's 
plans to get what the lawyers and the hypocrites 
did not get. It seems that the cunning Heil was to 
be Rainey's stool-pigeon to catch a good thing for 
the old backslider. After Heil had been refused 
the farm for another year he was then ready to con- 
demn the land as poor thin soil, and wanted to know 
whether I would take fifty dollars an acre for it. I 
said no, and then he offered fifty-five dollars, when 
I told him that he could tell Rainey that the least 
money that would buy it was eighty dollars per 
acre. He said Rainey would never give that. 
They then tried something else on the supposed 
crank. They knew that I was cornered up close 
by those breachy Dunkards, so I suppose they had 
it all fixed up in their own minds that they would 
have a good haul on the cranky fellow. Heil did 
the fishing for Rainey, cut the bait, etc., and they 
fished and fished, but they could not catch the 
crazy fellow. They did not have the right kind of 
bait. Heil got angry because he did not get the 
farm for another year, and Rainey put out more 
bait. Heil carried the news back and forth. Rainey 
sent word the second time that I should come to 



264 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 



town ; that he had an eighty acres of land down in 
Christian county, five and a half miles from Niantic, 
that he wanted to show me, that he wanted to trade 
me for my eighty. I went to Decatur, and he 
hired a team from the livery stable and took me 
down. I looked at his river-bottom land. It was 
a very dry time, and he explained how easy it 
could be tiled, and then it would be such a valuable 
piece of land. There was no fence on it, a little 
shell of a house on a knoll at one end of it, which 
was the only dry spot on the whole eighty acres. 
There was a pond of four or five acres, which I 
believe he called a fish pond, and he said there was 
no trouble to tile it off. He showed me a ditch 
somewhere about the center of the eighty, and I 
asked him what that ditch meant, and he said he 
supposed it was to run the tiles into, but I found 
out it was merely a levee to prevent the water from 
going over the whole farm. Mr. Howard told me 
that tiling would not do any good in that bottom ; 
that the whole bottom was overflowed about every 
year, just long enough to ruin their crops, and his 
wife said that people who had land in that bottom 
were worse off than if they had no land at all, on 
account of the overflows. But Rainey tried to make 



LAST LAW SUIT. 265 



me believe that a little tiling was all that was neces- 
sary to make the land very valuable. He was very 
much afraid I would inform myself about the land 
in that vicinity. As it was about noon, his tenant 
wanted him to put the horses in the stable, and 
have dinner, but he said he would drive somewhere 
in the shade and feed, and eat a lunch. 

I made some inquiry about my old friend, Mr. 
Steward, who lived in that vicinity. He did 
not want me to hunt up my old friends, because he 
knew they would post me about that river land. 
We drove about two miles, unhitched, and ate a 
lunch. Rainey told me to get my book and pencil, 
" and let us figure." I did so in order to see what 
he would d®. I made up mind that I did not want 
his land. I figured my land at seventy dollars per 
acre, and held his at forty dollars, but he said I 
asked too much for mine. I told him I knew he 
asked too much for his frog ponds. I then figured, 
and it seems the difference was something like $400, 
and he wanted to know whether I would split the 
difference. I said, " No." " Well," said he, "you 
study over it," and we then hitched up and drove 
home. The next day I took the train and went to 
Illiopolis ; within three and a half miles of the land 



266 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

we went to see the day before, and met my friend, 
Mr. Samuel Howard. I went home with him, and 
he went with me to see the land, and he told me it 
overflowed every year, and that it might be worth 
about ten dollors per acre. I came home and he,. 
Rainey, dropped me the following : 

11 Decatur, III., July 14, 1887. 
"Mr. C. Girl, Oakley, 111., 

"Dear Sir: I have been waiting for you in reference to 
our trade. If we don't succeed in making the trade I will 
ask you for what money you are owing me, as I wish to 
invest elsewhere. Please let me hear from you at your 
earliest convenience, and oblige, 

"J. M. Rainey." 

I answered his letter and told him that his land 
did not suit me, and that I would not trade, but I 
would sell him my farm at $85 per acre, and that 
was lower than I ever offered it to any one else. 
What he wanted was to skin me out of it. Mr. 
Rainey's card : 

" Mr. Girl: Your postal is at hand. Whether we make 
a trade or not I do not care to discuss the matter. You 
no doubt recolleet that we agreed on figuring, and you in- 
sisted that I should go and see your land, which I agreed 
to do on Saturday. According to the understanding, I 
went, and you, instead of being there, I learned, was run- 



LAST LA W 8 JJIT. 267 



ning over the country getting advice from others. I was 
careful not to misrepresent the land to you, which you 
admitted I had not. You said further that you expected 
you would have a big fuss about signing the deeds. I told 
you rather than that should happen to let the trade go. 
You said no." 

I will show that I have a very fair memory for 
an old man, and I do not remember any such lan- 
guage to have taken place. My dealings here with 
the citizens of Macon and Piatt counties for about 
twenty-four years show a better record than what 
Mr. Rainey can show to the people. As I have 
said, he is a shrewd trader, and, I think, a skinner. 
He says, in another letter, " I certainly considered 
it a trade, and was very much disappointed, not so 
much by not making the trade, as I was in the 
treatment you gave me, in not coming near to ex- 
plain yourself." 

I am now explaining myself, and Mr. Rainey 
had a timely warning by a postal card, but since he 
came to assist his dishonest friend Heil, he showed 
his colors on the witness stand, but tried hard to 
hide his deception. They had a timely warning 
not to join in with such dishonest people as Heil 
and his wife. Here is the card I sent him : 



268 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

Decatur, 111., Nov. 27, 1887. 
" Mr. Rainey : If you desire to avoid exposure of 
your sly acts in trying to play a smart game on me in a 
land trade that you had proposed to me, you should have 
said that you made a fair and square trade with me, which 
I say is not true." 

I have written a second card to him, and the 
reader will see for himself what Rainey was driving 
at. He was watching to get what those breachy 
Dunkards and my tenants could not get, and I will 
name the lawyer, too, who was trying to help them. 
He is one of the kind the Rev. Sam Jones refers to, 
that could be tolled to hell with nickels. 

We will now give the card to the public to read. 
I don't know what possessed him to send those 
cards back to me unless it was for me to publish 
them. It seems to me that I would have burned 

them. 

Decatur, III, Dec. 6, 1887. 

"You have no use for such cards, and you have sent 
it back to me. Much obliged. Please send the one back 
about the land trade. I say it is a lie and here is the 
proof ; 'if we don't succeed in making a trade, I will ask 
you for the money you owe me.' The real truth is you 
did not want your money, but wanted to force a trade on 
me. I will say again I am much obliged to you. I am 
not afraid to redeem my paper." 



LAST LAW SUIT. 269 



Lawyer Buckingham thought that he was going 
to prove that they had just cause to arrest me as an 
insane man, but he got beat at his own game. He 
must acknowledge that he got hold of the wrong Girl, 
and a Christian at that. A Christian Girl is not 
to be trifled with. A hypocrite cannot down a 
Christian, and a backslider is not much better than 
a hypocrite. 

Rainey said in a letter : 

" I regret very much that you and Heil cannot get 
along. It was through me that he concluded to let you in 
the house. I think he feels disappointed in not getting 
the place for another year. You had him believe there 
would be no trouble about it. I think the best thing you 
could do would be to buy him out. 

J. M. Rainey." 

I tried to buy him out. I offered him more than 
his crop was worth, — more than I could have made 
out of it, and out of those rotten apples. If I had 
bought him out I would have had some apples to 
eat this spring. I will say that Rainey took a very 
active part with that prairie wolf, because I would 
not let him cheat me out of my farm. He saw that 
I would not let him have his way, so he turned in 
and helped Heil to play the devil. 



270 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

When I first commenced dealing with Rainey I 
thought he was reasonably fair, but he turned out 
like the man's mule. " A mule is good to you all 
week to get a chance to kick you on Sunday." An 
old man like Rainey ought to be competent to give 
a young man good counsel instead of supporting 
him in such ungodly things as he did. I hope when 
they both read this history that they will repent of 
their hellish work, and ask their Creator to forgive 
them for their sinful conspiracy in playing a sharp 
game on a man that has been persecuted almost 
like our Saviour. They must know they have a 
soul to save or lose, and I think a man as old as 
Rainey to engage in such a hellish work as he did 
ought to be cut off from society. I would not carry 
such a guilty conscience as he showed before 'Squire 
Yoder for all the property he owns, for it will not 
buy his way into eternity. I hope that he may 
realize that an honest man is the noblest thing of 
God's creation. Just think, Mr. Rainey, we must 
come face to face with our God, and then we will 
say O, God. Then them rotten apples will stare 
you in the face. 



JACOB MILLER. 



I will now proceed to speak of one of the " old 
order " elders. He was one of our brethren. He 
turned " old order," and became a great worker 
with them. He said my antagonists were too much 
for me, and would not stay with them and try to 
get them right. He left the ship and jumped on to 
the flatboat, or jumped out of the frying-pan into 
the fire. May God help such apparent saints, who 
wear all their Christianity on the outside and none 
on the inside. But let us see what David says in 
the fifty-first Psalm, sixth verse ; 

" Behold Thou desireth truth in the inward parts, and 
in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom." 

They are upholding members in the church who 
went into court and testified unto untruths. Such 
government in a church is worse than none. Paul 
says in I Corinthians, fifth chapter, last verse : 

" But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore 
put away from yourselves that wicked person." 



272 HUMAN DEPRA VIT Y. 

We know that liars and backbiters and all such 
are ungodly men and women, but they still keep 
them in their church ; but these old evangelists, 
who have been preaching so long, do not take our 
Lord's and Apostles' doctrine, " to speak boldly 
the words of God," for they are afraid they will 
hurt some one's feelings, and it would be money 
out of their pockets. We find that the Word of 
God is sharper than a two-edged sword, but the old 
preachers do not cut anyone with it. I hope they 
will see where they are wrong, and bring those who 
have sworn to lies before them, for they will always 
be stumbling-blocks for the outsider to fall over. 
Let us see what the Bible says in regard to this, 
and I pray you will learn this chapter by heart. 

Turn to that book of praise and prayer, the first 
Psalm : 

1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel 
of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor 
sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 

2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in 
his law doth he meditate day and night. 

3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of 
water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf 
also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall 
prosper. 



JACOB MILLER. 273 



4. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff 
which the wind driveth away. 

5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judg- 
ment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 

6. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: 
but the way of the ungodly shall perish. 

We see by the foregoing the happiness of the 
godly, and the unhappiness of the ungodly. 

This old elder knew how they were ruling their 
church, and he left them to better himself, but he 
is upholding the same ruling in the church he is 
now in. He said he was too weak to overcome 
them then, and I don't think he has become any 
stronger yet ; but God says, come boldly to a throne 
of grace that you may find help in time of need, 
but you cannot rebuke them with God's word, for 
you might lose a member and a dollar. We can 
hardly tell what Christianity is by looking at the 
lives of so-called christians in some localities, where 
they are ruled by the devil's agents, and men that 
say they are too weak and sickly in God's cause to 
fight for the right. Jesus did not say "lam too 
weak," when he was with the devil, but He said, 
" Get thee behind me, Satan." 

18 



274 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

And now let me say to all these ungodly men, 
I will not have you in our church and allow you to 
walk with me, but get behind me devils' imps, or 
repent of your wickedness and do right. 

This old elder is very weak in the teachings of 
our Lord and Master, but it pleased him to see that 
I was too much for the hypocrites. He said that 
he was not strong enough to meet such trials as I 
did, and said it would have been better if there had 
not been any division in the church, and said those 
bishops stood by each other in all things. Some 
people will be too weak to climb up to heaven, 
if they are too weak here on earth to confess 
Christ. They cannot get the power after they 
leave here ; and because he is weak he will go hand 
in hand with false brethren, and has not courage 
enough to get them out of their ungodly ways. He 
is sustaining one that came to court and testified 
falsely, and is upholding him in this offence, that is 
against the laws of our country and our God. He 
told the old elder that he swore just as he believed, 
and they are willing to keep him with them. I hope 
that this short exhortation will teach the old elder 
a lesson, and may he grow in strength and knowl- 
edge of our Lord and Master. 



Eternity is Drawing Nigh. 



Pray, brethren, pray. The sands are falling, 
Pray, brethren, pray. God's voice is calling. 
Yon turret strikes the dying chime, 
We kneel upon the edge of time. 
Eternity is drawing nigh! 

Praise, brethren, praise. The skies are rending; 
Praise, brethren, praise. The fight is ending. 
Behold! the glory draweth near, 
The king himself will soon appear. 
Eternity is drawing nigh! 

Watch, brethren, watch. The day is dying; 

Watch, brethren, watch. The time is flying; 
Watch as men watch the parting breath, 
Watch as men watch for life or death, 
Eternity is drawing nigh! 

Look, brethren, look. The day is breaking, 
Hark, brethren, hark. The dead are waking, 
With girded loins already stand, 
Behold! the bridegroom is at hand. 
Eternity is drawing nigh! 



EXHORTATION 



Dear reader, it is a very difficult task for an 
unlearned person to write a history, and especially 
all they lack is to take me out and kill me. In all 
these hours God has not forsaken me, but has kept 
me through it all, and I, with Jesus, will say, for- 
give them ; lay it not to their charge. I have often 
thanked God for those blessed words, found in 
Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth, 
twelfth chapter, eighth and ninth verses : 

" For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it 
might depart from me. 

" And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: 
for. my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, 
therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the 
power of Christ may rest upon me." 

If it were not for those blessed words we would 
often yield to temptation. " My grace is sufficient 
for thee." But I have always found God's promises 
to be true. He will fulfill all his promises if we will 
do our part. In our most trying hour, when all our 



EXHORTATION. 277 



friends forsake us, we find, by putting our trust in 
him, that his grace is sufficient for every trial, and 
in all temptations he will make a way for our escape. 

Peter, who was always the spokesman for the 
Apostles, steps to the front and says: " The Lord 
knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation." 
I have proven this promise to be true, for God has 
known how to deliver me, and he has not allowed 
me to be tempted above that I was able. 

Dear reader, I hope you may learn a lesson from 
this feeble exhortation, for we are all to be tried, 
and God has given us all a way of escape if we will 
only use it. Let us put on the whole armor of God, 
and let us wield at all times the sword of the Spirit, 
which, as Paul tell us, is the Word of God. 

May God help all to be faithful to the end, and 
assist all hypocrites to repent of their evil ways, is 
my prayer. 



A HINT TO ALL 



Beloved Bishop and Elder: You are getting- 
things off in your favor. You say in your reply to 
my request that I said you were no christian man 
or you would have answered my letters, and Mr. 
Deck told you what was not so. You say such are 
about the exact words used, as parties in the house 
at that time can testify. We may testify to any- 
thing, and the judges do not know but what we are 
telling the truth ; but oh ! who can judge human 
hearts ? I am ready to give an answer of the 
blessed hope that is anchoring my poor soul. 
Human aid seems to be out of my reach, so I will 
do as the poet says : 

" Cast all your cares on Jesus, 
And don't forget to pray." 

I will have a good victory if all those preachers 
shoot at me with all their wisdom, and all their 
shrewdness, to try and hide their deception. They 



A HINT TO ALL. 279 



may hide their deceptions from poor mortal man 
and woman, but what do they preach to their fellow 
man, that God is an allwise being, knowing even 
the intents of the human heart. Have you the 
spirit of Christ with you, to treat a poor persecuted 
man as you have treated me? Did you not say, 
the time I approached you, that I have a legal right 
to call on my fellow man for aid when I am in dis- 
tress? Did you act out your part as a christian, 
when I approached you with tears in my eyes? 
Did you set me down as a Dunkard impostor, or a 
crank, or a religious fool? Well, my good friend, 
I am willing to be called a fool for Christ's sake, 
but I do not like the idea of being called crazy by a 
set of money-gods and skeptic preachers. God 
knows there are hundreds of them filling the 
pulpits, making pretensions that they are leading 
their congregations right, but are leading them to 
ruin and destruction. There are thousands of poor 
souls led astray. Can the blind lead the blind ; 
shall they not both fall in the ditch ? 

I would rather see the devil come at me in the 
form of a demon, than to see a skeptic put into the 
pulpit to. preach. Great God ! where are our 
American people drifting to ? Can you answer the 



280 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

question ? It seems to me that they are drifting 
into idolatry as fast as the wheels of time can roll 
them along, and still some of our well-educated 
preachers are crying peace, peace, when there is no 
peace, but strife and confusion. They that forsake 
the law praise the wicked. How much better are 
the poor, who walk in their uprightness, than he 
that is perverted in his ways though he be rich. 
He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, 
even his prayer shall be an abomination unto God. 



EXHORTATION 



The title of this book will show to the world 
what it contains, and I hope it will be studied with 
care, for I write it for the benefit of all christians 
and sinners ; to show to the christian that there is 
power in the love of Christ ; and for the sinner, to 
show what a christian can stand, and exhort them 
to become christians. This volume is also for the 
benefit of hypocrites, to try and get them to turn from 
their evil ways, and stop making a mockery of God's 
cause. I will not leave out the skeptics, — for they 



EXHORTATION. 281 

are always ready to stand up and pray, and make a 
mocking of our blessed Bible. I have had all these 
to handle, and I found it very hard, but a true chris- 
tian can handle them with "God's Word" at all 
times. I started out to be a Christian, and I will 
be, let it be life or death ; and now, after all my per- 
secutions, I will pray with the psalmist David : 

1. O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust; save me 
from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: 

2. Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, 
while there is none to deliver. 

3. O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be 
iniquity in my hands; . 

4. If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace 
with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is 
my enemy:) 

5. Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, 
let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine 
honor in dust. Selah. 

8. The Lord shall judge people; judge me, O Lord, ac- 
cording to my righteousness, and according to mine in- 
tegrity that is in me. 

9. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; 
but establish the just: for the. righteous God trieth the 
hearts and reins. 

God will deliver us from our enemies if we put 
our trust in Him. I know there is a vast number 



282 HUMAN DEPRA VITY. 

of good people in the Dunkard Church, but I have 
been persecuted by a set of devils in that church, 
and by some of other denominations. We can read 
that the saints will judge the world, — it it is not- 
necessary for me to name them in this, but I have 
named them in the foregoing chapters, at least 
some of them, and they can all see what they have 
done. May God help them all. 



PRAYER. 



O Lord God, creator of all things, who art fear- 
ful and strong and righteous and merciful, the only 
gracious King, the only giver of all things, the only 
just, almighty and everlasting King ; thou that de- 
livered us from the ungodly and from all trouble, 
please, our Father in heaven, gather together those 
who are scattered from us ; deliver them that serve 
Satan ; look upon those that are distressed and 
oppressed ; let the heathen know that thou art our 
God. If not against thy will, punish those that 
oppress us and with pride do us wrong, and plant 



PRAYER. 283 

thy people again in thy holy place. Be merciful to 
those who have no mercy on themselves. My de- 
fence is in thy power and in our dear Saviour, thy 
Son, who was sent upon the earth to die for us. 
Thou hast promised, through thy dear Son, that the 
believer in Christ shall not be persecuted above 
that he is able to bear. We come, O, our Heavenly 
Father, to thee for help ; make us strong in thy 
word and thy power. Come then, thou blessed 
Lamb of God, deliver us out of the hands of our 
persecutors, make us strong in our faith, and help 
us to provide all things honest before God and our 
fellow-man, so that when we are done upon this 
sinful earth we may have an assurance of meeting 
beyond this vale of tears, where we will be forever 
blessed. Kind and merciful God help us to this 
end, and thine shall be the praise, honor and glory 
forever more. AMEN. 



